Mortal Reploid
by Rydrake Kyuubi
Summary: -AU- Shinja is a human who became a Reploid through a transfer machine Gate created.  Sigma becomes a huge problem alongside the Nightmare Virus and is after Shinja.  With Sigma planning to destroy Shinja, can the Maverick Hunters work with Gate?
1. The Nightmare Unfolds

Character Thoughts: "{abc}"  
>Translated Speech: "<em>abc<em>"

Chapter 1:  
>The Nightmare Unfolds<p>

"Okay X, be careful. I'm getting odd energy readings from the museum." Alia warns.

"Yeah, I can feel it. I've got a bad feeling about this place." X says.

"Wait, I'm also getting a heat signature reading too."

X activates his Thermal Imaging scanner by pressing a button on his helmet, and while he sees heat coming from most electrical objects he says, "Alia, you're gonna need to be way more specific than that."

"It's organic; something's alive in there, X, but I can't tell what it is."

"What about location?"

"Let me see…it looks like it's in the Dinosaur Exhibit. X, the Nightmare Virus is everywhere; be careful."

X ends the transmission while turning off the helmet's Thermal Imaging device. He sighs as he looks at the Z-Saber he took from Zero three weeks earlier when the Sigma Virus ran rapid throughout most of the world, if not all of it. The successful collision between the Eurasia Colony and the Space Shuttle, piloted by Zero, saved the Earth without Zero becoming a Maverick. But when the battle between the Hunters and Sigma came…X still wishes he could turn back time and be able to defeat Sigma without Zero getting killed. Right now, he stands erect, gripping onto the saber and focuses on finding the organic within Central Museum. He had tried traversing it before, but with rotten luck, getting as far as the Dinosaur Exhibit.

With the hallway currently free of enemies for the time being, X descends a couple floors until he faces a Totem Gate in a transparent cloaked state. He has no choice but to touch it, and is transported to the Dinosaur Exhibit Nightmare Room. There are several Nightmare Viruses surrounding something and keeping it cornered in a corner of the room. He turns the Thermal Imaging Device back on, and sees the organic's shape amidst all the viruses; it was human. He charges in and starts to make quick work of the viruses, which gives the human the opportunity to escape.

However, the human turns back with a saber of its own and aids X in destroying the remaining viruses. Once they were destroyed, X is able to get a good look at the human, but becomes confused, as the human is wearing armor similar to Zero's, only copper colored and wearing a blue-green scarf, similar to that of ProtoMan's. The saber was a bright blue color, and the human's eyes hazel green.

As the human puts the saber away X asks, "Hey…you are human, right?"

"Hm? Of course. This armor was specially made so I could move freely while having protection." the human replies.

"But why does it look like Zero's?"

"Oh…yeah, about that. You remember about a year ago with the Bermuda Triangle Incident?"

X starts to recall the incident. The year was 2010, and the Earth was healthy and filled with only humans, plants, and animals. Fantasy was not a reality. However, someone decided to argue that fact. This one person who had no life, spent most of his hours researching all kinds of phenomenon of the Bermuda Triangle. He stole something from the military – some kind of powerful ray gun – and fires it at the triangle. This caused a rift to open up, and only a pair of eyes could be seen. All of a sudden, an energy blast flies out of the rift, causing massive damage to the area and killing the person. Large out of control Mechaniloids and Mavericks come out of the rift, followed by Sigma. The Reploids, X and Zero, appear next and try to attack Sigma, but he punches them hard enough to go flying a few yards away.

The battle carries on for days, X and Zero trying to protect the humans that Sigma and his Maverick army were ready to kill. They eventually succeed in destroying him, but they soon realize the amount of destruction caused by the fighting. Before they could return to the Bermuda Triangle Rift, their futuristic world collides with Earth, and both worlds fuse together instead of destroying each other. The Hunters find themselves trying to help repair all the damage done from the fighting between Repliforce and Sigma for several months, before the Eurasia Incident occurred.

"That's right." says the human, "But in between that whole mess, I was under attack by Split Mushroom. While you were busy keeping Sigma at bay, Zero took out Split, saving my life. This armor is a dedication to him after the news reached the underground that he was killed by Sigma. I didn't create this alone."

X asks, "Well then, what's your name? And who helped you create the armor?"

"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Shinja, which means 'sacred snake'. And the one who helped me make this armor was Geito-kun." Shinja replies.

"Gate? How on Earth…no, **why** on Earth would he help a girl that's defenseless? Er, no offense."

"None taken. To be honest, I went to the surface to search for my old car wearing an oxygen tank because the pollution was so bad." Shinja starts before X looks at her funny. "Hey it worked! Anyway, I eventually found my car, still in decent shape. But I soon discovered I was running out of oxygen. I abandoned the tank and had no choice but to breathe in the polluted air. But it was too much for me. My minor asthma turned severe in seconds and I was suffering from an attack…that's when Geito-kun appeared, rummaging through the same pile of rubble. He saw I was passing out trying to reach my car, and took me back to his lab as I lost consciousness."

"You've got asthma? That must really suck."

"Not really; I've got an emergency inhaler. When I woke up hours later, I found myself in a room on a bed next to my car. Geito-kun enters the room and is glad to see I was okay. He asks what I was doing putting myself in such danger and I replied that I wanted to create armor from my car's remains and join the Maverick Hunters. He calls me brave before telling me my tank was sabotaged, finding a thin hole in the bottom of it."

"Who would do that?"

"…My parents."

"What?"

Shinja turns her back and looks at her clenched fist explaining, "We got into a huge argument over me wanting to join you guys. I was getting tired of staying underground, and I was craving adventure. They argued with me, and from that I could sense they had no confidence, no belief in abilities I have yet to discover. They said if I left that they'd disown me, so I left and swore never to return. I don't care though…if I can't join an actual police force like I dreamed of doing, then I might as well try to join the Maverick Hunters."

"Shinja…you realize that you won't be able to do much of anything when you grow old, right? We Reploids have a much greater longevity than humans."

"I realize that, but Geito-kun is going to help me gain that same longevity, X. You see, I've got many fears, and one of them is dying. The pollution I wound up breathing in dating back a few months ago cut down my life span by 10 years. Geito-kun has built a machine that will transfer my soul, my consciousness, all of me, over to my Reploid body that looks exactly like this one does…armor-wise anyway."

"If that's true, then why are you here?"

"…Ground Scaravich kidnapped me while I was sleeping and placed me in this room. You know how much I despise waking up to that T-Rex skeleton pictured over there? My heart leaps into my throat every time I see it."

"Figures. Well, let's get out of here. I'll bring you back to HQ for now."

"Fine with me. Will I be able to contact Geito-kun? My transmitter broke when I fell a few days ago."

"I guess so."

X takes hold of Shinja's hand and contacts Alia saying he's bringing her back without mentioning her name. Alia gives an okay, and X teleports back to HQ with Shinja, arriving at the entrance. He quickly rushes her inside and leads her down the hallway. He tells her that they know of Gate when they rescued a Hunter that saw him. The only thing is, they don't know very much of Gate and what his intentions are, but Alia has told them of her past with him. Shinja says that Gate did tell her about Alia and how she and the other researchers destroyed his creations because they couldn't be analyzed.

They reach a corridor with a sign saying "Transmissions". X brings her to a room with a large computer screen built into the wall with a keyboard coming out at a slight angle. Shinja gets right to work trying to contact Gate as X waits outside, closing the door. Within a couple of minutes staring at nothing but static, Shinja is able to make contact with Gate, as his face appears on the screen.

Gate says, "Shinja-chan, is that you? Where have you been for the past couple days?"

Shinja replies, "Your little 'business acquaintance' kidnapped me and left me in the Dinosaur Exhibit Nightmare Room. You couldn't leave him dead, could you?"

"We've been over this, Shinja. Where are you now?"

"I'm at the Maverick Hunter HQ. X got me out of the museum just a little bit ago. Is the machine ready yet?"

"The machine's all set. Your Reploid body is fully prepared for the transfer, and it's fully equipped with all the defenses you'll need."

"EXCELLENT! I can't wait to be in my new body soon!"

"Don't get too excited, Shinja-chan. By the time I get you out of the tank, I'll be running tests to make sure everything is functioning properly. Understood?"

"Yeah, I get it, Geito-kun. You rule."

The doors open and X appears with Signas, who had a serious look on his face upon seeing Gate for the first time. Shinja looks at the Hunter Commander confused, not sure what is going to happen. Signas looks at the confused girl, and gently smiles at her, confusing her further.

"Shinja, this is the Hunter Commander, Signas. Commander Signas, this is Shinja." X introduces.

"And he's Gate." Shinja says pointing at the screen.

"Yes, we've heard of him. X tells me you've left the underground to join us, correct?" Signas asks.

Shinja replies, "Yes, I want to join the Maverick Hunters."

"You do realize the danger of becoming a Hunter though, right?" Signas asks.

Gate answers, "If I may interject, sir, I've prepared her a Reploid body for what she plans on doing."

"Oh?" Signas questions.

"Yes. You see, her time spent on the surface breathing in the amount of pollution, as well as her skin absorbing it, has caused her life span to be cut by 10 years. I'm not exactly sure what it was before, but she'll be able to gain our longevity through a machine I've built that will transfer all that she is into the Reploid body." Gate explains.

Signas looks at Gate with a scowl, not liking the idea of the machine. Shinja looks downward, lowering her head so her gaze no longer meets Signas. She has a strong feeling she might get turned down. Signas looks over at Shinja, studying the shape of her armor, how it looks just like Zero's except for the color and scarf. He was told by X that it was meant as a dedication.

Signas then inquires, "What are the chances of this transfer not succeeding?"

Gate looks at Shinja who looks up at him. He has never told her the chances of it succeeding or failing. He has no choice right now but to answer.

He replies, "I've done many checks. The chances of success are 30%, and the chances of failing are 70%."

"You've gotta be kidding, Geito-kun! The chances are that bad?" Shinja freaks.

"I'm sorry, Shinja-chan, but I didn't want to upset you. I wanted you to really look forward to the transfer, not question it and have me put it together for nothing. But…if you don't want to do it anymore, I'll understand." Gate says.

"I still want to do it!" Shinja responds, not bothering to hesitate.

X asks, "Wait, are you sure about that?"

"X, I'm nowhere near death right now. I'll be able to pass right on to the Reploid body!" Shinja says.

"You're quite a brave little thing." Signas says, "Gate, where is your location? I'll have X bring her over."

"That won't be necessary. I'm having her 'surprise' pick her up instead." Gate replies.

"Surprise?" Shinja questions.

A Hunter suddenly appears saying, "Hey guys! There's an Adion Ride Chaser outside! We keep trying to grab a hold, but it backs off and then rams into us."

"Has anyone been injured by it?" X asks.

"…Oddly enough, no." the Hunter replies.

Gate laughs and says, "That's because she's designed to defend Shinja and hurt only enemies! She isn't meant to harm allies like Maverick Hunters."

Shinja's eyes light up as she says, "That Ride Chaser's my surprise?"

"Complete with Artificial Intelligence, a global tracking system should you get lost, and of course the combat system it was built with. The AI gives her a personality, the ability to think just like us as well as feel emotions, and communicates with car-like engine revs. And if you don't like the color, I can easily change it over to something else; it's nothing but plates and light covers." Gate explains.

Shinja gets excited and wants to be brought outside, but Signas denies her for the fact of the pollution being bad. Gate says that the chaser was equipped with a few oxygen tanks for the trek back to the lab. With that, the transmission is ended and Signas, X, and the Hunter lead her outside, where the magenta—colored Adion Ride Chaser is trying to intimidate three other Hunters by revving the engine. Shinja calls for it as Signas tells the Hunters to stand down. The Ride Chaser approaches Shinja, and quickly produces an oxygen mask, connected to the top tank mounted on the right side. Shinja takes it and places it on as she checks out the GTS.

"You know Shinja, I could always escort you." X offers.

She replies, "That's okay. I've got my saber and now this baby! I will contact you as soon as I get back to the lab, though."

"Sounds good to us. Be careful out there, Shinja. Don't let the Nightmare Virus get too close to you." Signas says.

Shinja gets on her Ride Chaser and heads off to the lab. X watches as she disappears into the horizon within minutes. Signas reassures X by placing his hand on his shoulder. They and the Hunters head back inside and wait for Shinja to contact them.

Meanwhile, Shinja is miles away from Maverick Hunter HQ. She is enjoying the freedom she's feeling riding her Ride Chaser. She looks up at the cloudy orange sky, noticing its cross over into twilight. A bird-like mechaniloid flies overhead. Shinja focuses back on paying attention to the landscape, passing several destroyed buildings, large mechaniloids, and part of the Eurasia crash site. She starts to look forward to the transfer.

The Adion Ride Chaser then communicates, "_So, you're called Shinja, huh? Glad to meet you at last. I don't have a name like you though._"

Shinja looks at her Ride Chaser saying, "Hey, I understood that! I'm happy to be piloting you. Hmm, what if I simply called you 'Magenta', since that's your color?"

"_Fine by me. I'm not into those complicated names._" Magenta agrees before she slows her speed and says, "_I sense something nearby._"

Shinja looks on the GTS screen located just under the little windshield, and sees a dot within the top-right part of the screen and says, "It looks like another Ride Chaser. Is it friend or foe?"

"_Damn, I forgot to go over that with you. The central dot is us. Any other green dots are allies, blue are friendly mechaniloids, yellow dots are enemy mechaniloids, orange dots are enemies, and red dots are Mavericks. The Nightmare Virus shows up as a DNA shape._"

"Grr, this one's neither of those colors! It's white!"

"_White? That means it's neither; neutral. I'm going to keep moving at this speed; you decide on what you wanna do._"

"Understood. Heehee, I sound like a Maverick Hunter already!"

Shinja keeps going on her path as the unknown Ride Chaser closes in. She begins to see something appear from the horizon. As it gets closer, she starts to see the pilot, but can't be sure. The unknown Ride Chaser soon gets too close, and Shinja makes Magenta turn tightly to the left to evade. Both stop in place and Shinja draws out her saber. The pilot of the green Ride Chaser dismounts and faces Shinja with a smile.

Shinja's eyes widen in shock as she says, "You're the rogue, Dynamo!"

"Oh, you know who I am, huh? That was quite an evasion technique for a noob Hunter." Dynamo says, leaning against his Ride Chaser.

"…A) I am not a Hunter yet, and B) call me a 'noob' again and I'll find a way to neuter you."

"I can tell you're all talk. You're wearing an oxygen mask…that means you're human. Your only source of attack is your Ride Chaser; close combat is too risky."

"You suck, you know that?" Shinja sighs before she continues, "You're lucky I think you're one of the coolest characters from the games."

Dynamo raises an eyebrow, "Hm? You think I'm cool? You're the first."

"And probably the only one. Look, you've analyzed my situation well, so you know I can't defend myself. I'm just trying to get back to Geito-kun's lab."

"Gate's lab? I heard from one of the Nightmare Viruses that he took in a human. How about if I help escort you there? The viruses are worse at night."

"_That might not be such a bad idea. But it's up to you, Shinja._" Magenta says.

Dynamo looks at Shinja's Ride Chaser confused and says, "That thing can talk?"

"You understood her?" Shinja asks.

"I guess. It said your name was Shinja, correct? That's an interesting name." Dynamo answers.

"Geito-kun came up with it. I refused to tell him my original name since I became disowned from my parents. I don't care though; I'm on my way to a better life as soon as I get to the lab." Shinja says.

"Disowned? How'd that happen?" Dynamo asks.

Shinja has Dynamo mount his Ride Chaser, and she starts to explain her past to him, the same one she told X. As they pass the crash site, something fires at them, the blast knocking them off their Ride Chasers, disconnecting Shinja from the oxygen tank. She shakes off the disorientation and scrambles to get back to Magenta, but something blocks her path. She looks up and finds it's Infinity Mijinion.

"Mijinion? You're supposed to be working at the Weapons Facility! What are you doing here?" Shinja asks before she starts coughing.

Mijinion stares at her and replies, "I'm tired of Gate always talking about you. Each time I try to tell him of my sweet Illumina, he acts as if she isn't important. If I take you out, your chance of passing into the new body will be lower than 1% success."

Dynamo quickly attacks Mijinion using his saber which Mijinion blocks and says, "I'm not letting you destroy her by any means."

Mijinion laughs and says, "You moron! I blocked you with the arm that has Illumina's activation button. You just sealed that human's fate!" and pushes the button in his arm.

Out from the ground, Illumina rises up half way. Magenta recovers, pushes herself up and fires at the large Reploid. The shots bounce off Illumina's body, and is swatted aside, the two right mounted oxygen tanks destroyed. Shinja watches in horror as the giant Reploid slams down its hand over her. Dynamo quickly dashes over and tries to block the hand using his own strength. Illumina simply wraps its hand around Dynamo, picks him up and throws him into the ground a few yards away. Illumina then goes back to attacking Shinja, this time succeeding in crushing her, the crunch of her armor being easily heard.

Illumina lifts up its hand revealing a crushed, but still alive Shinja. Her armor is completely smashed, dented, and broken, some parts piercing her skin. Mijinion laughs maniacally, happy about his success, and the power of his creation. With that, he retreats into the ground by jumping onto Illumina. Dynamo approaches and is filled with fear and shock at the site of the blood leaving Shinja's body. Magenta rushes in to Shinja's side and begins to panic. Dynamo quickly shakes off the feeling. He walks over to Shinja's body and picks her up.

"Magenta, right? We don't have much time. Let me ride you to the lab." Dynamo says.

"_Get on! I can reach speeds no other Ride Chaser can!_" Magenta says.

In the meantime, Gate is making his final preparations for the transfer machine. He checks the status of Shinja's Reploid body, which looks how her armor currently does, a scarf hanging on the outside with care. The stats for the body are perfect, nothing is wrong. It is in a cylindrical tank filled with liquid that has taken on a green color from the lights on the top cover. Wires connect to it to check for abnormalities like a virus, as well as an oxygen mask with the oxygen currently turned off. A large tube connects to the crystal on the helmet meant for the transfer. The body is currently in a curled-up position in order to fit in the tank. Another tank sits next to it, but is empty; this one is meant for Shinja herself.

Blizzard Wolfang enters the lab with a few Wolfoids. He sees Gate checking on the Reploid body, and sees its healthy stats. Gate puts the computer on sleep mode. As he turns to leave, he sees Blizzard Wolfang.

"Here again I see. You've become so interested in Shinja, haven't you?" Gate says, leaning against one of the tanks.

"I've been curious of her, to be honest. She has such a personality that's unlike anything I've ever seen. It's like all she wants to do is play." Wolfang replies.

"You're not alone. She's an interesting character. But that playfulness of hers…don't forget the history she shared with us; I doubt she told X that part."

"…That's true. I can't imagine going through all of that. Maybe my reason for becoming slightly attached is because of what happened to us a long while back."

"It's possible you're connecting with her from that. All of us were wrongfully judged. I'd still like to get back at the other researchers."

"I would myself, but, is it worth that much stress?"

Out of the blue, Commander Yammark comes flying in, and nearly crashes into a wall due to being in a state of panic. He lands between Wolfang and Gate, the fan blades in his tail spinning out of control. Wolfang smacks him upside the head, which seems to aid in calming him down.

"Yammark, what are you doing in here? I told you you're restricted from this room." Gate demands.

Yammark replies all upset, "I-i-it's Shinja! A transmission was received in the other room from the Adion Ride Chaser you made her! Infinity Mijinion had his Reploid thing attack Shinja and some other guy, and the girl's DYING! THE DAMN FLEA SQUASHED SHINJAAAA!"

"MIJINION DID WHAT? Wolfang, go find her now! I need to prepare her tank." Gate commands.

"Yes sir! Let's go, wolves!" Wolfang agrees.

The wolves howl as they follow Wolfang out the lab. Gate falls under the sudden shock, having to hold his head up as he wakes up the computer. He begins to type in commands for the empty tank to fill with liquid and get the oxygen flowing into the masks; one hangs from the cover on the other tank, while the other comes from below.

He starts to lose it when he begins to get thoughts, "{I can't believe Mijinion would do such a thing! I thought Metal Shark Player would try something first; he didn't appear to have an interest in her. Why would he turn on me like that? Shinja never treated him badly…except for the one time she used him as a nightlight because his body glows…but still! Mijinion…you've become a Maverick…she helped me and Isoc decrypt almost all of Zero's DNA by being the one to get near it, and not get affected by it. Damn you, Mijinion! You've decreased her chances of passing on into her new body!}"

Yamark's cries were not helping the matter either as he sat in a far corner of the room, "Shiinnnjaaaaa! I was gonna give you a Dragonfly of your own with a nightlight option! I was even gonna teach you to fly a helicopter I built!"

"WILL YOU CAN IT, YAMMARK! YOU'RE NOT HELPING!" Gate shouts.

Wolfang returns with Dynamo, who is carrying Shinja and being followed by Magenta. The wolves are last to enter the room, tails between their legs, ears lowered, and whimpering. Gate can't believe the stat that Shinja is in; she's still fighting against death despite having lost so much blood. He tells Dynamo to place her on the table next to her tank. Dynamo does as asked, explaining in detail what happened, starting from when the two met just a while ago. Gate immediately starts to strip away the armor until none remained, revealing Shinja's choice of clothes for the day; a black and white butterfly tunic with black corduroy pants.

Wolfang picks her up, climbs up a small step ladder, places the oxygen mask over her face, and gently puts her in the tank. He closes the lid, and the tube for the transfer connects to her forehead. Her wounds slowly bleed out, changing the liquid's color to red. Gate types in more commands to get the transfer started. Another visitor pops in having just received news, Blaze Heatnix. He quickly bonded with Shinja when he found that not only does she like fire, but that she likes the phoenix as well. Even he was shaken to see Shinja in such a bad condition.

Gate finishes typing in the commands and starts the transfer. The tanks start to faintly glow, and the progress is measured on the computer. All of them watch in anticipation as the progress bar grows the first 5%.

"Will she be able to make it over to the new body?" Dynamo asks.

"It's all on her now. If her will to live is strong enough, she should wake up in her new body. Either way, her human body will go limp and become lifeless if this succeeds or fails." Gate replies.

"I want her to live. I practically stopped being rash because of her." Heatnix says.

Wolfang looks at him and says, "That's because the both of you would find things to put up in flames."

"Is she a pyromaniac?" Dynamo asks confused.

"No, she's not. She just likes to burn things while she's with Heatnix." Yammark replies, joining the group.

"Up until she found my stash of chemicals. You still need to replace ten of them, Heatnix." Gate says.

The progress bar reads another 5% have been added. They have a feeling Shinja's will may not be strong enough; it's been 20 minutes. Magenta approaches the group, and says that Shinja was going to contact X when she returned to the lab. Dynamo is about to do just that, but Gate stops him, saying if he tells X what happened, the Hunters might receive an order to attack the lab. Dynamo lowers his head then looks back at Shinja.

"You know something?" Dynamo begins. "I never fought very seriously before. Even when I used to disturb X and Zero while they were preparing to deal with the Eurasia Colony. This time though, I didn't use my full potential to fend off Mijinion and his Illumina."

Wolfang asks, "Are you blaming yourself for this?"

"Dynamo, you could've used all the strength you had against Illumina, but Mijinion has given it so many weapons not even you would've survived long. Don't blame yourself for this…the only one at fault here is Mijinion." Gate says.

"_Infinity Mijionion is too smart. His thinking capabilities are greater than that of a super computer. Even if Illumina was taken down, he would've thought of other ways to…_" Magenta says, but stops herself.

Yammark was about to say something, but notices the progress bar filling up faster than before, jumping from 10% to 30% in a few minutes and announces, "Oh my God, look! I think she's crossing over into her new body!"

Everyone looks at the progress bar go up another 6% and Gate responds, "It's filling up way too fast! Something's not right!"

"Wait, shouldn't that be a good thing?" Dynamo asks while Gate rushes to the computer.

"If she wasn't on her death bed! This can only mean one out of two things: either she really is going into her new body, or she's…passing on." Gate says, bringing up a window that asks to Cancel or Continue the transfer.

Magenta asks shocked, "_What do you think you're doing Gate? Guys, tear him away now!_"

The guys rush to Gate and tear him away from the computer. Dynamo stays in between Gate and the computer as Wolfang and Heatnix pull Gate away. Yammark runs over to the tanks, telling Shinja to transfer into the new body and not to pass on. The progress bar fills up another 20%, bringing the total to 56%. Dynamo adds into the begging that Yammark is doing while trying to keep Gate away from the computer, the bar reaching 70%. Magenta even starts to beg, mentioning X and Signas, and the progress reached 90%. Heatnix and Wolfang manage to pin Gate to the ground, and even they call out to Shinja. The bar reaches 99%, and then a window pops up saying "Transfer Complete", and the computer goes back to a default screen.

Shinja's human body goes limp, having no more life in it. Just then, the tubes connected to the heads of both bodies disconnects, and the helmet crystal fully forms and lights up. Fog appears and disappears on the Reploid body's oxygen mask, indicating it's breathing. The eyes then open up, and look over at everyone.

Gate is allowed to the computer and punches in the command to drain the liquid. The wires for status checking disconnect and the liquid quickly drains. The Reploid body is lowered to the cage-like drain catcher as the liquid empties out. Once it's gone, the glass tank is lifted up and the oxygen mask is removed. Gate approaches the new body and it looks up at him.

"…Geito-kun?" the body asks.

"That's Shinja's voice!" Yammark says.

Shinja smiles and says, "That's 'cause I had enough will to ignore the white light at the end of the tunnel and follow the computerized light instead."

"IT WORKED! IT F*CKING WORKED!" Gate happily shouts.

The others cheer and celebrate Shinja's successful transfer, until she falls over onto her right side while passing out. Gate checks her and finds she's only exhausted from the event. He grabs a water hose from the bottom part of the tank and rinses off the liquid.

"So, now what happens?" Heatnix asks.

"Now…" Gate replies grabbing an air dryer, "…we can contact X and tell him what happened."

* * *

><p><strong><span>Trivia:<span>**

1) In the Central Museum, there are few Nightmare Rooms with certain backgrounds, such as a deep ocean, outer space, and dinosaur skeltons.  
>2) X6's plot says that humans resorted to living underground due to all the pollution. This being the case, the pollution could be severe enough to do more damage the usual, but it is uncertain.<br>3) Shinja calls Gate "Geito-kun", while Gate calls Shinja "Shinja-chan"; since Gate is the one that saved Shinja, it is possible they see each other as siblings, or they have a good amount of respect for each other.  
>4) Gate mentions that Shinja helped him and Isoc decrypt 99.98% of Zero's DNA by being the one to be near it; this means that Gate has yet to go mad.<br>5) Magenta, the Adion Ride Chaser, has an AI system as well as a global tracking device. Despite these small "upgrades", she is no stronger than any other Ride Chaser.  
>6) Dynamo before fought X and Zero to simply annoy them. However, instead of saying he's looking for Nightmare Souls, he gains an interest in Shinja and tries to protect her from Mijinion's Illumina, but sadly fails.<br>7) Blaze Heatnix is said to have a rash personality, however, getting along with Shinja because she likes fire and the phoenix seems to have calmed him down.  
>8) Yammark's panicking is due to the fact that he fears Hunters and other researchers. It also shows he really likes Shinja as he says he created a dragonfly with a nightlight for her.<br>9) The Bermuda Triangle incident could be another 2012 phenomenon, though it happens two years before the fact.  
>10) Although it is said that Shinja wears a scarf similar to ProtoMan's; this is simply due to lack of detail.<br>11) The X5 and X6 games have several storylines and endings; I am simply trying to choose one that makes the best sense and what occured in my X5 game. Though, one odd thing happened with my X5 game. The first time Zero piloted the space shuttle, the result was him becoming Maverick (I suck as X so one can imagine that heartache). I tried a new file and made another attempt, again, Zero becoming Maverick. I didn't let the scenbe play out and turned the game off. When I turned it back on, however, the result was Zero escaped without going Maverick. With that, I was able to defeat the Shadow Devil as Zero and finally defeat Sigma later on. In X6 though, I can't beat the Nightmare Mother to save my life, so YouTube became my source for seeing the endings.


	2. Uncontrolable Snake

Character Thoughts: "{abc}"  
>Translated Speech: "<em>abc<em>"

Chapter 2:  
>Uncontrolable Snake<p>

Shinja has been placed in her bedroom after Gate took care of cleaning her off an hour ago. Her room is simple; it is not too big, nor is it too small. A dresser leans against the wall, waiting to be emptied of all of Shinja's clothing. A vanity sits next to it, reflecting the gentle carousel of green, blue, red, and yellow lights slowly changing into the next color from the dragonfly Yammark created. The dragonfly rests on an end table next to Shinja's bed, which is really a bunk bed; a Woodcrest Woody Creek Twin Over Full Front Loading Stairway Loft, bunk bed. She usually sleeps on the top bunk, but Gate was unable to get her on the top bunk, so he put her on the bottom bunk for now. The room has a window, but not the kind that opens up. This window, when activated, can display an array of images of Shinja's choosing: a snapshot of a cherry blossom tree with Mt. Fuji behind it, an open ocean with a sunset scene, an island being shadowed by a sunset, a city lit up at night, a pleasent forest scene, or an outer space scene. She used to have a tv sitting on a small entertainment center, but due to some rough play with Shield Sheldon when she tried to pry him out of his shell and knocked over the tv; Gate refused to find another one.

With Shinja resting peacefully, Gate contacts the Maverick Hunters with Dynamo, who was reluctant to be involved with the transmission. They manage to get through, X appearing on the screen. He is surprised to see Dynamo is alive after the Eurasia incident. After that shock, Gate tells him what happened having Dynamo explain in detail what Infinity Mijinion did.

"...I knew I should've followed..." X says, looking downward feeling guilt.

"X, believe me, that thing Mijinion created would've done the same to you, if not worse. But, at least she's alive and in her new body." Dynamo says.

"Still though, it happened all too soon. First she's disowned, then her parents sabotage the oxygen tank, then Ground Scaravich kidnaps her...and then she's practically killed..." X argues.

"Either way, it ended with a positive outcome, and hopefully she can achieve her dream of being a Maverick Hunter like you and Zero. But X...is that all she told you?" Gate says.

"What do you mean? She told me she left the underground to find her-" X replies before Gate interrupts, "Stop. She didn't tell you her full background."

"...There's more besides that?" Dynamo asks, having been told the same story.

"There is...a lot more than what she told you guys. When she and I were watching an old movie, a scene got her thinking, and she told me all of her past." Gate answers.

"Tell us then. We need to know everything about her if she plans on being a Hunter." X demands.

Gate looks at X and explains, "Shinja told me that her childhood wasn't the most positive memory. Her days up until the 4th grade were basically 'sunshine and rainbows', as she puts it. But in the 4th grade, she did nothing wrong to deserve obtaining a bully. When she told her parents, they barely helped her out at all. Her teacher didn't bother to do anything even when it was happening in front of her. This bully apparently made her do things she didn't want to do, call her names, destroy her classwork, write on her desk, spit drinks in her face if not on her clothes, hit her, kick her desk, distract her completely from any classwork, stick gum in her hair causing her to cut her hair short making her look like a boy...just all kinds of torture, some of which she's repressed."

"...I wonder if this kid's still alive?" Dynamo asks, looking at his saber and getting ideas.

Gate continues, "She didn't stop getting bullied until she graduated high school and moved onto college. She did nothing to deserve such treatment, but it made her become a darker person and untrusting of humans. She even grew up in a hostile environment; her parents constantly arguing over anything they could complain about, including Shinja. She lost touch with her friends when she was getting bullied because the bully would make sure they never got the chance to attempt to help. In high school, she never saw her childhood bully, and instead was pushed around by a group of popular...excuse my french...'skanks'."

"Skanks? That's not a swear." Dynamo says.

"No, but she called them the 'c-word'." Gate replies.

X looks at Gate with shock and disbelief as Dynamo cracks up.

"Anyway," Gate goes on, "those group of popular girls would belittle her, call her names, pick on her for having short hair like a boy's, tease her about having a flat chest, spread false rumors around...all kinds of hell she didn't need. She told me she was thankful that the rift happened because she said some of her tormentors were killed by Mavericks."

"I wouldn't blame her there. But at least I know her background. Alright, have her contact here when she's gotten used to her new body. I'd like to talk with her before she comes here." X says.

"Will do." Gate says.

The transmission ends. Gate turns off the computer and takes a deep breath. It will be a while before Shinja wakes up seeing as how the event drained most of her energy.

A month passes by, Isoc barely getting involved in what was going on with Shinja; he was more preoccupied with Zero's DNA. Dynamo decided to go back and forth between Gate and the Maverick Hunters to keep himself busy and would also help in checking on Shinja. Blizzard Wolfang stayed near Shinja's room with a few Wolfoids to make sure Mijinion never got a chance to get near her; the door was in the only way in. Blaze Heatnix would take Wolfang's post when he needed a break. Commander Yammark did what bugs do best; he bugged Gate to hell and back asking if she was awake. When Rainy Turtloid was told of the attack, there wasn't much he could do due to his size, but did offer his area for her to run around and test out her abilities when she does wake up. Shield Sheldon popped in occasionally and try to wake her with no result, which earned him getting chased out of the room by Wolfang or Heatnix. Although Metal Shark Player didn't like Shinja too much, he did one good thing: replaced her old tv wit a new one, much to Gate's anger. When Ground Scaravich left the museum to see what Gate was up to, he was told to stay away from Shinja after the others found out he kidnapped her. He said he didn't and Shinja misunderstood, saying that he was trying to protect her from Mijinion as he wouldn't think to look for her there. Dynamo made sure Scaravich was telling the truth, and he was. Scaravich tells everyone that he made new sceneries for Shinja's window adding in an underwater ocean filled with marine life, a starry sky featuring the Milky Way, a different starry sky featuring constellations, the Northern Lights changing into different colors, and a full moon with a comet flying behind it.

After the month flew by, Shinja finally awoke. Groggy at first, she snaps out of it in a few minutes, and climbs out of bed. Something moves and scares her. She looks on the top bunk and finds Wolfang resting. She then sees the dragonfly still shining its colors and finds it has a digital clock put in it witrh the numbers being displayed from its eyes; the hour in the right eye and minutes in the left eye. It was five in the morning. She puts the dragonfly back and walks out of the room, wanting to find Gate. Shinja knew she was in her new body, not feeling the need to use the bathroom and not feeling any hunger, but could hear her new foot steps sound. The lights in the hallway were dim, a signal that everyone else are still sleeping. This hallway contains nothing but several other bedrooms and a couple closets with a dead end. She walks out into the hallway walking up it, seeing all the door are shut. She started getting angry at the fact she was unable to quietly sneak around and stops. She examines the busters on her arms and finds a button on the right one. Shinja presses it and a smal screen opens up with a small flat buttoned keyboard. It starts up and displays the word "hello" on it. She types in a command for a silent mode. It works by silencing her footsteps, to which she happily rushes up the hallway and makes her way to the lab.

Gate is nowhere to be found, but instead Isoc is there, trying to decrypt more of Zero's DNA with no luck. Shinja never liked Isoc from the day they met; she always got an odd feeling from him. He stops what he's doing and looks behind, finding Shinja keeping her distance as she walks in and finds an incomplete semi-sphere with a wing sticking out of it. This is Shinja's project that she started a day after she woke up after Gate found her.

He asks breaking the silence, "What do you think you're doing?"

Shinja replies, "I woke up and now I'm waiting for Gate. What's it to ya?"

"I see your personality hasn't changed. That's bad news for everyone."

"So is your face. Now be quiet while I work on my own Timcanpy."

"Tim-what?"

"It's this thing from an anime called D. Grey Man. I don't know anything about the anime, but I did manage to look up this little guy on Wikia, read about him, and decided to make one of my own. But this one is gonna be more of a-wait, why am I telling you all this? We don't see eye-to-eye."

"...You need to be rewired."

"You need to get a new face."

Shinja pulls out a drawer and looks for some plyers. This drawer had her name on it and was filled with all kinds of parts she found lying around the lab that Gate had no use for. Isoc brings his attention back to Zero's DNA and Shinja finds a pair of plyers. As she starts pulling and placing some wires within the half Timcanpy, Isoc silently reaches into his coat pocket and slowly pulls out a weapon; a tazer. Before he could act, however, Gate appears and sees Shinja and does a double-take. Out of nowhere, he quickly hugs her saying how happy he is to see her awake and functioning like before. She kicks his knee, getting him to let go of her as he cringes in pain.

She turns around and says, "How many times do I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea to sneak up on me like that?"

Gate replies as Isoc puts back the tazer, "Your personality and regular defences haven't left. That's good!"

Shinja sighs and says with a smile, placing a hand on her hip, "You're so hopeless Geito-kun. So, what kind of tests are you gonna run?"

"Well, I thought I'd start with normal functions, like walking and running, but I see you've found your way to the lab okay." he answers.

"Yup, walking felt the same. I haven't tried running yet." Shinja says.

"I didn't think you would without me around. Anyway, after that, I was going to test your melee combat skills-Oh that's right! Rainy Turtloid is going to let you use his area to test out your new abilities and such. I told him I'd bring you there as soon as we found you could run properly." Gate starts to explain.

"Rainy-kun's such a softie." Shinja says, putting the half-complete Timcanpy away.

"So long as you don't say that to his face. But after testing your melee combat skills comes your S-Buster, then your S-Saber." Gate says.

Shinja giggles and says, "S-Buster and S-Saber, huh?"

Gate replies, "Yes. Snake Buster and Snake Saber. Come, let's get started."

Gate leads Shinja out of the lab. Isoc punches the wall having not been able to give Shinja more than a jolt. He then stops trying to decrypt the other .02% of Zero's DNA, saves his progress, then starts on a different project. He contacts someone who enters a minute later; it's High Max.

"You wanted me, Isoc?" High Max asks.

"Yes. High Max, I want you to hinder Shinja's testing progress so she never discovers her buster and saber abilities. We must keep her week by all means so that finishing the job stays simple enough for even me to do it." Isoc replies.

"Yes, sir." High Max agrees before leaving.

Shinja and High Max see each other as rivals in more ways than one. While at least six out of the eight Nightmare Investigators never got blinded by jealousy with the "special" attention Shinja received, High Max is also a creation of Gate's and the "leader" of the Investigation team who wasn't really blinded by anything. He just doesn't like the fact that Shinja is a human with a bright mind, and can't grasp the fact that she helped Gate and Isoc decipher 99.98% of Zero's DNA out of curiosity. He would challenger her to wooden sword battles to which she would lose to due to not having the physical strength. Though, whenever she would lose and he'd try to knock her out, either of the 7 Investigators would protect her at the last second; even though Metal Shark Player doesn't completely like her, he does like the potential he senses from her. Shinja would get him back by challenging him to Battleship and win each time, except for the one loss. High Max also hated the fact that Gate pittied something weaker than him, saved her life twice, and sees Gate as a brother for it. But now he has a chance to do real damage. Shinja cannot use any combat skill yet as the tests need to be done in order. He can strike at any time and lie to Gate by saying he's anxious to test her combat skills.

High Max finds a dead end hallway and walks in it as it is hidden away in a shadow. He presses an unseen button on his helmet starting a new transmission. It takes a few seconds for the signal to reach the receiver.

High Max starts, "Zero Nightmare, are you there?"

"The hell do you want? I'm busy spreading the nightmare!" Zero Nightmare replies.

"Don't give me an attitude because you're incomplete. Look, you know of the human, Shinja, correct?"

"That bitch? Can I kill her now?"

"Infinity Mijinion already took care of her, but Gate was able to get her soul to pass on into her Reploid body."

"...Can I squish the flea then?"

"{Why did Gate create this guy again?} Listen to me. Isoc has given me the order to sloow down Shinja's testing stages so she doesn't learn how to fight. He wants to kill her himself. I'm going to need you to attack Shinja as soon as she and Gate make it to the Inami Temple. Understand?"

"Why can't you do it, Tiny?"

"...'Tiny'? If I atack, Gate will know something's up. But if you attack, he won't suspect a thing."

"I think I get it. Yeah okay I'll attack. I'm bored as hell anyway."

The transmission ends. High Max will have to keep a low profile if he pans on succeeding. If High Max does attack on his own, Gate will suspect something is going on and get to the bottom of things immeditaly and could discover Isoc told him to attack. For now, he'll have Zero Nightmare do the attacking. He's incomplete and mentally unstable, pretty much acting on his own accord so him attacking anyone isn't out of the ordinary.

Meanwhile, Gate has brought Shinja to a room filled with different kinds of obstacles in order to test her new body's functions. The obstacles here are: monkey bars, a ropes course with a pool below it, rock climb wall, and balance beams, in order.

"Rainy Turtloid and Dynamo are setting up another course in his area since it can only be done outside. All I want you to do is get through this course as quick as you can. Remember, we're only testing to see how well your body functions, not your skills." Gate says as he pulls up a screen to mark down her progress.

Shinja looks at the ropes course and says, "You know for a fact I'm afraid of heights, right?"

"Shinja-chan, if you plan on becoming a Maverick Hunter you can't afford to let your fears control you. And there' a pool below so if you fall, you'll be fine. Reploids have the ability to breathe underwater so if you can't swim, you won't drown."

"...Damn."

Shinja begins the test, running to start. Her running is normal as she isn't tripping over her new legs or feet. She jumps up to the monkey bars and quickly gets across all 20 bars without problems. Next, she climbs up a rope ladder onto a wooden post and has to cross a rope bridge. She grabs onto the rope that allows for her to cross as she tries to keep balance on the ropes she's trying to cross. The ropes below snap and Shinja holds on tight before that one breaks and she falls into the pool below. Gate tries to hold back his laugh; he purposely weakened the ropes so he could see if she can still swim. Shinja surfaces spitting out water and looks up at the ropes. She can see cuts made in them and immeditaly glares over at Gate. He simply waves as she swims to the edge and climbs out. She marches over to him and stares at him when she's just inches away.

She shouts, "Here's my melee test!" and punches him in the face.

Gate is forced to the ground from the punch and Shinja turns her back on him. Dynamo enters the room about to announce the course at Inami Temple is set, but finds Gate on the ground with his nose bleeding. Gate facepalms and shakes his head saying Gate shouldn't have weakened the ropes. Shinja walks out of the room wanting to see Rainy Turtloid. Gate sits up and feels the blood comig out of his nose, quickly applying pressure using his index finger and thumb, causing him to breathe through his mouth. Dynamo walks over and asks if he's okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Ugh...Shinja-chan's got one powerful right hook." Gate replies.

"I told you it was a bad idea to weaken the ropes. Now she's mad at you." Dynamo sighs.

Gate stands up saying, "She won't be for long. This obstacle course is actually a realistic hologram."

"So, this is one of those holographic chamber rooms?"

"Yes. I'll show her later how to use it so she can practice her fighting skills without getting injured."

"She can just fight me! I'll train her!"

"How can I trust you won't get carried away?"

"Since when do I get carried away? If I do, then look at it as another test."

They hear Shinja call, "Hey, are we goin' to the Inami Temple or what?"

Gate sighs and says, "I should've place in a remote control chip."

About an hour later, after Gate had to get his nose to stop bleeding being very lucky it wasn't broke, he, Dynamo, and Shinja reach the Inami Temple by teleportation. Gate found that Shinja had a small side effect from teleporting: dizziness. It wears off after a few minutes of being still and Dynamo leads them to a course he and Rainy Turtloid set up; it's a parkour course, designed to see if Shinja can wall jump, land gracefully, perform a zigzag wall jump (jumping from one wall to the other), and double jump. Shinja looks at it in awe becoming excited. Then, Rainy Turtloid appears seeing the three. He's glad to see Shinja is functioning well and alive.

Rainy Turtloid says, "Shinja, this course is designed to test your agility. You can use it for training as well. You can run through this for as long and as much as you like, but don't wear yourself down."

Gate says before Shinja is lifted by Turtloid, "Just one thing kid, you can only use this course for 30 minutes. After that, I want to move on to your actual melee training and then combat training."

"SHE AIN'T DOIN' ANYTHING!" someone shouts.

Everyone looks towards the entrance and finds Zero Nightmare, saber drawn and an evil look on his face. Dynamo draws his saber and tries to keep his cool as he walks in front of Zero Nightmare, wearing a serious look. Shinja goes to draw her saber, but finds she doesn't have the attachment on her back. She looks over at Gate who is holding her saber.

"So, it's you again. What do you want?" Dynamo demands, pointing his saber at him.

"She's a Reploid now, right? She can fight...ngh!" Zero Nightmare replies as a sharp pain shoots through his head, making him more unstable as he growls, "...COPPER GLOW...MUST DIE!"

Dynamo blocks Zero Nightmare's attack and pushes him back. Turtloid grabs Shinja and turns his back towards the battle in an attempt to protect her. Zero Nightmare suddenly uses Genmurei Kai, sending three crescent waves at Dynamo. Dynamo spins his saber in an attempt to guard against the attack, but fails and is forced back, knocking down several trees before crashing into a nearby river. Gate isn't up for fighting but has no choice but to switch to his gold armor. Before he could do that, Zero Nightmare slashes downward at him, and Gate falls letting go if Shinja's saber. Turtloid fires several missles from the two jewels on his back and Zero Nightmare is hit. He puts Shinja down, quickly gathers Gate as she grabs her saber, and he tries to lead her inside the temple. The smoke clears and Zero Nightmare gives chase, quickly catching up to them. Shinja looks back and sees his quick progress. She looks at her saber knowing there's not many options left.

"No Shinja!" Turtloid says, "You're not ready to fight an opponent that strong!"

"Hey it's either I try to hold him off while you guys get to safety or we all die!" Shinja says, turning around and dashing towards him.

Turtloid wants to go after her, but has no choice but to get inside.

Gate shouts, "What are you doing? Go back for her!"

"I can't Gate! She's right! Lord knows where Dynamo landed and if my crystals are destroyed, we're done. Shinja's on her own." Turtloid replies.

Shinja and Zero Nightmare attack and block each other's attacks as if they have faced each other before. Shinja is relying purely on her instincts alone, having no actual battle experience; this was completely fast paced compared to her losses against High Max. Zero Nightmare's attacks were especially fast and difficult for her to read. Eventually he flings her back with Denharei. She slips as she lands on her feet slamming down onto her face. Zero Nightmare grins maniacally as he approaches Shinja who is trying to shake off her failed landing, and then looks up at him. He starts to charge energy in his hand, preparing to use Shin Messenkou. Shinja has no idea how to block against the attack or use any other of the real Zero's known moves, as her armor is based off his.

Zero Nightmare says, "I'm going to enjoy this. Time to say goodbye for good, human!"

Shinja looks away in fear thinking, "{Damn! Am I really going to die this way? Geito-kun! Dynamo!}"

As Zero Nightmare raises up his hand about to slam it down on Shinja, a charged plasma shot comes flying out of nowhere and blasts him yards away. Shinja looks in surprise, and sees X in his Falcon Armor more than ready to defend Shinja. He looks over at her, walks over and helps her up.

"Are you alright, Shinja? The base received a distress call from here and I left as soon as I heard you were here." X asks.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Ngh, Zero Nightmare's one speedy and powerful opponent." Shinja replies.

"You've done your part for now. Stand back and let me handle the rest."

"I'm sorry...if only I knew his attacks..."

"Don't beat yourself up over this yet; you haven't lost. Just stay at a safe distance and let me take care of the rest; you did well."

"...Okay. But don't expect me to hold back for long; I'll jump in if it looks bad."

X nods and Shinja quickly jumps up into a tree. Zero Nightmare returns to the battle noticing his opponent now is X. He laughs like a maniac at this.

"Hahahaha! Well if it isn't the famous X himself! This is great, I can kill two birds with one stone!" Zero Nightmare says.

Shinja calls, "X, be careful! His mental state is unstable!"

Another sharp pain shoots through Zero Nightmare's head and he loses more control shouting, "WHERE IS ZERO? WHERE IS MY ZERO!"

X wonders, "Is he going crazy? Who is he anyway?"

Zero Nightmare roars, "DESTROY...DESTROY...DESTROY YOU!"

"Watch out, X!" Shinja warns.

* * *

><p><strong>Trivia:<strong>  
>1) When Gate tells X Shinja's past, he chooses not to use Shinja's word for describing the popular girls that'd pick on her.<br>2) Shinja has been working on her own Timcanpy. I was told about the anime D. Grey Man, but never really watched it. After seeing Timcanpy and reading about him on Wikia, I've decided to bring him into this being more of Shinja's Navigator (once he's fully built). THIS IS NOT A CROSSOVER BECAUSE OF THAT. More will be explained in future chapters, so be patient.  
>3) While Gate has not gone mad, Isoc seems to be hostile towards Shinja. He wants to go as far as killing her, but finds he must rely on High Max.<br>4) In the game, the Nightmare Investigators are after Zero Nightmare; here High Max relies on him to go after Shinja instead of going after her himself.  
>5) Zero Nightmare is mentally insane and incomplete; this proves true when he battles Dynamo, Shinja, and X.<p> 


	3. Becoming a Reploid

Character Thoughts: "{abc}"  
>Translated Speech: "<em>abc<em>"

Chapter 3:  
>Becoming a Reploid<p>

Zero Nightmare dashes and slashes at X like a true maniac, X having to dodge each slash made. Shinja watches trying to find an opening, but Zero Nightmare is too quick; even X can't read his movements. Then, one occurs; as Zero Nightmare prepares to use Genmurei Kai, X takes out his saber and slashes across, slicing open Zero Nightmare's abdomen as pieces of purple material go flying through the air. Zero Nightmare jumps back in shock and grabs hold of his abdomen, but discovers nothing vital was cut. Shinja looks at X, knowing that the attack was too short to really cut their enemy.

X says, "Well, it seems someone has enough brain cells to realize he could've died just now."

"Grr, it's called instinct! We all got it! Argh, f*ck this. Killin' that human ain't worth dyin'. We'll meet again!" Zero Nightmare yells before teleporting away.

Shinja jumps down from the tree and walks over to X. He looks over at her and smiles, then places his hand on her head causing her to grin.

"I'm glad you're okay, Shinja. But, you do need a lot of training." X says as he takes away his hand.

"Yeah I know. All I was gonna do was a parkour course and Zero Nightmare appears. Hey, you knew how Zero fought; do you think you could teach me some of his moves?" Shinja replies.

Someone calls, "Why am I being ignored?"

X and Shinja look over and find Dynamo using his saber to walk. The red visor is retracted into the helmet, and sparks are flying from a tear in his left leg. His right buster is smashed like the shell of a hardboiled egg, and his hair covered in mud and leaves. X rushes over and has Dynamo lean onto him as he helps him walk. Turtloid walks out of the temple with Gate who now has a slash wound across his chest leading down to his right hip. Shinja is the only one without injuries, being lucky enough to have blocked most of Zero Nightmare's attacks. Turtloid is undamaged as well. Everyone is gathered and X has Dynamo sit for the moment.

"Well X, " Dynamo starts, "it's good to see your skills are still sharp after three weeks."

"Yeah, they've gotten better since I took Zero's saber. I just wish he as still here." X replies.

"I'm sure he isn't quite dead yet. But, I do want to thank you for saving Shinja. I don't know what I'd do if she was killed." Gate says.

"It's no problem. But she does need to learn to fight. I realize she just got a taste of it, but if that guy gets stronger and faster, Shinja won't be able to do anything." X says.

"In that case, now that I know her new body's functioning properly, why don't you take her?" Gate asks.

Shinja asks, "What do you mean, Geito-kun?"

Gate looks at her and answers, "Shinja, your body is based off of Zero's. Your fighting skills will be closer to his than Dynamo's skills. You need to learn to fight from a Mavrick Hunter, and who better than X? He can teach you to properly use your buster, saber, and teach you tricks that I can't. Not to mention...you'll be safer with him than with me right now."

"...Keh, sounds like you've done a lot of thinking, man. And you're right; my skills don't match up Zero's so she'd be learning a more laid-back fighting style." Dynamo says.

Shinja argues, "But if I go with X, then I won't see you, Geito-kun..."

X smirks saying, "Sounds like she really likes you, Gate."

"We do see each other as siblings. Shinja, it's gonna take both me and Dynamo a while to recover, and neither of us will be able to train you. Go with X." Gate says.

With Shinja unable to really argue, she has no choice after looking at Gate and Dynamo. She agrees to go with X. Except for Turtloid due to his size, everyone teleports back to Gate's lab while X waits outside, soon being joined by Magenta. Shinja gathers what she needs into a messanger bag she created with Turtloid - extra scarfs, the dragonfly, her saber with its attachment - until she looks at a drawer in her bed. She opens it up and finds a framed picture of her and Gate standing in front of an incomplete transfer machine. In the picture, Shinja is standing proudly with her hands on her hips, and Gate with a simple smile and his right hand on her left shoulder. She places that in the bag and moves onto the lab and gathers her tools, pieces, and the half-built Timcanpy and places that in the bag. Once she knows she has everything, she heads outside to meet X, suddenly finding Gate, Dynamo, and six of the Investigators to bid her a farewell. She does say good-bye to everyone promising to contact and visit them. X's Adion Ride Chaser arrives, having the coordinates placed in its internal GPS. With that, they mount their Ride Chasers and Shinja follows X to the Maverik Hunter base. Shinja looks back at everyone and the lab, watching it become smaller as she pulls away until it can't be seen. Unable to see the lab, she looks ahead and presses on.

The Investigators can no longer see Shinja, and quickly start feeling depressed. Just then, Isoc appears with High Max. Gate shoots them a nasty glare as do the others. Dynamo prefers to not shoot daggers and looks off into the horizen.

Isoc says breaking the silence, "So, she has left, eh?"

"Yes, she has. She's going to learn how to be a Reploid." Heatnix replies.

Gate stares at Isoc, sensing something isn't right. Isoc is smiling as he looks off into the horizen. High Max looks at Gate becoming nervous as he is being heavily glared at. Not showing any sign of weakness, High Max tries to head inside until Gate tackles Isoc to the ground and holds him by choking him with both hands. Everyone flinches in shock as Gate has never unleashed such fury before (out of what they've witnessed before being destroyed). Dynamo isn't surprised; deep down he has his suspicions that someone was behind Zero Nightmare's attack. Zero Nightmare always kept his distance around Shinja, never wanting to get to close and spark a conversation in fear he might end up liking her; it's something he clearly didn't want, this part of him being reflected from the real Zero's DNA.

Gate shouts as he chokes Isoc, "It was you, wasn't it? You're the one behind Zero Nightmare's attack!"

Isoc replies, "Guah...how can you tell...?"

"Zero Nightmare has no real reason to attack Shinja directly like that! The fact that he retreated after X wounded him says so!" Gate explains.

"He's right. Zero Nightmare's kept a lot of distance between himself and Shinja while some of us became friends with her. He's never once spoken to her except for the encounter at my temple. If you truly are behind this Isoc, we will contact the Hunters and together with them we will **take you down.**" Turtloid says, his voice becoming deep enough to rumble the ground.

Isoc starts to cackle maniacally. High Max becomes worried that Isoc is laughing the way he is. Wolfang and Yammark gang up behind High Max preparing to take him down if he tries to get away.

Gate demands, "What's so funny?"

Isoc replies, "Kahahahaha! You actually think I'm behind all this? Like I would dare! What would I gain from killing her anyway?"

"Give it up Isoc! I know for a fact it was you!" Gate shouts.

"Gate, please. None of us can control Zero Nightmare. You can't control him, I can't control him, High Max can't control him, and neither can the Investigators. He's more unstable than Francium." Isoc says.

Gate suddenly realizes that Isoc's right. Zero Nightmare's so uncontrollable that it's a wonder he hasn't malfunctioned to the point of death. He lets go of Isoc and both stand up. Isoc dusts himself off and turns to head inside. Wolfang and Yammark back down and let High Max follow Isoc. As soon as both are inside, a scowl grows on Gate's face. The Investigators and Dynamo share the same suspicions.

"What will you do, Gate? All of us suspect Isoc, but we can't prove he did anything if he did." Dynamo asks.

Gate looks over at Dynamo, seeing sparks still emitting from his leg. He sighs and answers, "First, I need to fix the both of us. Second...I need to set up security cameras."

"I can take care of that. I know just the areas where I want to set them up." Scaravich says.

"I know for a fact we have cameras in other parts of the lab, but we don't have them in the room with the transfer machine, or where Zero's DNA is being kept. We also don't have any in the hallways either." Yammark mentions.

"In that case, Scaravich, you're in charge of setting up the cameras in those areas. Let me know when things are set." Gate announces.

"I'll get on it immeditaly. Thought Gate, do try to calm down. Don't let your emotions get the better of you." Scaravich agrees before he teleports to his museum to grab the tools and parts needed.

Heatnix looks out into the horizen and says, "I see dark clouds moving in. Gate, I'm sure Shinja will be just fine. Now that she's with the Hunters, danger isn't going to get within miles of her."

"Agreed. X showed tremendous strength and will back there. I don't think he's going to let anything touch Shinja easily." Turtloid says.

"I know X from battle experience. He's very strong. Nothing gets passed him." Dynamo says.

At Maverick Hunter Base, Signas has shown Shinja where she'll be staying. It's Alia's room. Shinja didn't like the fact that the room is small with no place to put her stuff. X shows up now in his regular armor and facepalms at the situation; this is not what intended to happen.

X says in a whiney tone, "Signas, I told you Shinja would be staying in my room."

Shinja looks questionably up at Signas saying, "He told you this and you're thinking of sticking me with a female?"

Signas asks confused, "I'm just trying to be gender sensative. As a human, didn't do those sleepoever things with other girls?"

"I had a bully that wouldn't let me near my friends damaging my social life, c**** wouldn't leave me alone in high school, so no; I never had the luxury of being around my own gender." Shinja replies.

Signas isn't sure what to say after hearing the c-word until he responds, "Then I have no choice but to stick you witrh X."

"Win!" Shinja says with an evil grin.

X facepalms again having a good idea of what he's in for, then removes his hand and says, "You act just like Zero. Are you certain Gate didn't sneak some of Zero's DNA into that armor? We know he has it."

"No, otherwise I'd be going Maverick. It's just my own messed up personality." Shinja answers.

"Guess so. Alright, follow me. After you're settled in, I'll teach you some fighting moves." X says.

Shinja catches up with X and follows him down the hall. Signas shakes his head knowing he just took in someone who not only resembles Zero, but almost acts the way he does. He walks down the same path X has taken, heading back to the Navigation Room where Alia is currently trying to track down missing Reploid Soldiers. He had sent several soldiers five days ago to different locations to investigate the Nightmare Virus, but none of them have returned. He fears that either the Nightmare got to them, or they are trapped or lost.

Meanwhile, X shows Sinja his rooom. It is a fairly large room with two recharge beds, and an end table in the middle with a small lamp. Each bed also has an insignia on it; a large blue "X" on the left one, and a red "Z" on the other. There is also window similar to Shinja's as it's displaying three waterfalls, one on top of the other. The other side of the room has Armor Change Stations, again each having a respected insignia. Both are inactive, with X's only on sleep mode in case he needs to switch to another armor. There is also a sliding closet door next to Zero's Armor Change Station. X walks over to it, opens the door, and pulls out a mobile recharge bed (similar to a rollaway bed for humans). He quickly sets it up and puts it horizontally across from the other beds.

X says, "Until you get a room of your own, or if you choose to stay in mine, you'll have to sleep on this."

"...I've seen one of those kinds of beds in Geito-kun's room. Aren't they uncomfortable?" Shinja asks quite clueless.

"Not to us. Reploids don't really needs to sleep on matresses like you're used to. But they're important. These recharge beds fully restore the energy one has used up in a day. They're silent, so you don't even know you're being revived. And like rechargable batteries in those DSs and such, they stop charging automatically when all the energy is restored. So in a way, you're playing the part of a battery." X explains, trying to be as clear and detailed as possible.

"Makes sense. Heh, I'll be adjusting to everything in one night! It's a lot to take in..."

"You'll get used to it. May not be right away, but you'll adjust just fine. If you feel uneasy for any reason, you need to let me or the others now, okay?"

"Got it. Um...where am I gona put all my stuff?"

"I've got-" X tries to say before the alarm sounds, scaring Shinja causing her to drop all her things.

X says, "Damn, an emergency! Stay close to me!"

"No problem..." Shinja replies, still shaken.

X and Shinja rush to the Navigation Room where Signas, Douglas, and Alia are having tracked down the issue at hand. Douglas notices Shinja and looks at her confused as Alia is busy keeping track of the problem. X tells him he'll explain later and asks what's going on.

Alia replies, "I've spotted something strange near the Eurasia crash site."

"We've been getting a lot of odd readings from there lately. Any idea what it could be?" X asks.

"We're not sure. We can't get a clear look at what's going on, but the scan is showing some odd signals coming from there. X, you need to investigate this immeditaly!" Signas replies.

"Understood! Shinja, you stay here. If it's dangerous, I can't have you follow." X says.

"But what if it's Zero Nightmare? You might need help!" Shinja says.

"If it were him, these readings would be all over the screen and causing it to glitch. It doesn't look like it's a huge threat though, now that things are starting to come in clearer." Alia responds.

Signas tells X, "In that case, take her with you. Even if the threat is minor at best, she can learn how to fight. If what you told me is true from that last transmission earlier, then she should be okay."

X replies, "Okay. Shinja, let's go. Be sure to stick close by at all times."

"Understod!" Shinja agrees.

Signas laughs and says, "She's learning how to take orders well! You two be careful."

X and Shinja rush out of the room and head for a Teleportation Pod in the next room over. Alia punches in the coordinates and sends them both to the Eurasia crash site. It was a different side of it, one that Shinja had never been to due to all the Nightmare Viruses chasing her away when she was human. This part was much larger and not as much debris was covering the ground. However, the dark clouds overhead started rumblimg, causing Shinja to become nervous.

X notices and asks, "Are you okay?"

"Do Reploids get struck by lightning easily?" she asks.

X laughs and says, "Haha, no Shinja. Although we're made up of metal, we're still not the tallest things around. If anything's going to get hit, it's the metal sticking out from the higher stacked debris. Just don't rabdomly stick your saber in the air."

"I hope so." she says staying on alert.

The two trek through the area, soon finding the Nightmare Viruses. X takes out his saber and tells Shinja to watch what he does. She watches carefully, studying each move X makes as he easily takes care of three viruses. Suddenly, one appears from behind her and she grabs her saber and spins around, slashing the virus and destroying it in one attack. X nods at this, knowing she'll be able to handle them without much problems. As they continue through the area taking out Nightmares along the way, rain begins to fall, and lightning and thunder dance and sound, respectively, through the clouds. Shinja quickly becomes uneasy and wants to head back, but realizes she's no longer human and can't get sick by being in the rain. However, she finds a large piece of rubber debris and carries it over her head in fear of being struck by lightning. X thinks she may not have had the best of luck in weather like this, either that or she's naturaly scared of it. The second thought proves true as a bolt of lightning strikes a large metal debris piece ten feet away and Shinja jumps and grabs onto one of his arms, dropping the rubber piece. He knows hoe uneasy she feels, but sending her back would not let her get used to what she'll be getting into in the future as a Reploid. It's experience gone hardcore for Shinja.

* * *

><p><strong>Trivia:<strong>  
>1) Zero Nightmare is unstable, but realizes killing Shinja is pointless. While not fully explored in X6, this shows that he has some wariness of being destroyed.<br>2) Zero Nightmare's speech is only proof of his unstable condition.  
>3) Gate makes the decision of giving Shinja to X as a means of keeping her safe.<br>4) The picture Shinja finds of her and Gate was taken some time after her rescue and before the story begins.  
>5) Although it is unclear how Gate behaved before the events of X6, he is shown to be protective of Shinja by attacking Isoc out of nowhere.<br>6) Gate's suspicions of Isoc remain even after Isoc tells Gate he wasn't the one who ordered Zero Nightmare to attack; sadly enough, this is true. High Max told Zero Nightmare to attack.  
>7) The recharge beds mentioned don't actually make a real appearance until Command Mission. In the beginning of X4 for those that chose Zero, we only see a capsule. Whether they are still used through the events of X5-8 is unknown.<br>8) Shinja is not another Zero; she is still human and has her own personality. This is proven to be so as she has a fear of lightning; this is something Zero does not have.


	4. Shinja's Dilema

Character Thoughts: "{abc}"  
>Translated Speech: "<em>abc<em>"

Chapter 4:  
>Shinja's Dilema<p>

Both Shinja and X press through the storm, amazed that no other Nightmares have attacked. Along the way, they come across a Nightmare Virus lying on the ground. Shinja goes to take a look at it, but is zapped by strong static. X thinks it may have been struck by the lightning when it was flying higher up. Shinja grabs onto X's arm again and they continue on. The rain only gets heavier and the thunder and lighting go off every few minutes. They start to get close to an open area where the signal is coming from, but discover the ground here is oddly weak. At one point Shinja gets stuck in what appears to be quicksand. X grabs onto her but her panicking only makes her sink faster, taking X with her. Soon, he's stuck and neither can get free with Shinja apologizing like mad. Just then, when they're only half way deep, they find they're not stuck any longer. They soon fall right through, X landing on his feet and Shinja crashing into the sand pile below. After X pulls her out, they find themselves in an abandoned underground lair. X looks around and finds this was the place where he and Zero fought Sigma.

Shinja pulls out her saber and finds a switch on it. She presses it and the saber acts like a torch, lighting up the room. With her becoming the lead, she and X walk through the room, seeing the debris from the previous battle three weeks ago. They come upon a door, but it doesn't open. X decides this is a good opportunity to teach Shinja how to use her buster. He has her watch him as he recalls his hand and the solar charger emerges. He explains to her how it's worked, that like him, the buster is used by activating the fusion reactor within, and focusing it into a simple plasma shot. He demonstrates by shooting at the door a few times, with no luck destroying it. He demonstrates how the Charge Shot works by firing a medium-sized shot at the door, still not being able to destroy it. He also shows her the fully charged shot, still not being able to take down the door. Shinja then looks at her left hand. She knows that the buster works by focusing the solar energy from the fusion reactor, but now that she's seen it work, she gives it a try. She recalls her hand and solar charger comes out, the entire buster soon transforming into a look-alike of Zero's, but smaller and sleeker.

"What the? I told Geito-kun specifically to make the buster like Zero's!" Shinja says a bit disappointed.

"Maybe he didn't want it being so big that you wouldn't be able to take aim well. Haha, his buster is the bulkiest." X says.

"I guess. Ngh, it just looks so strange; it looks like an autocannon or something."

"What's that odd button? Right there on the top."

Shinja sees the button X has spotted and presses it. A visor comes down from her helmet and a screen displays with a target lock system. A warning soon displays indicating it's still only in its testing stages and the buster cannot become fully charged as a safety precaution. The warning fades away and Shinja is able to take aim at the door. As soon as both crosshairs line up, they are now locked on the target. She begins to build up the plasma shot, but can't get it to fire, and she soon starts to panic. X grabs onto her buster as the shot starts to charge and the warning flashes again on the visor screen. The both struggle to get the shot to fire, and soon X has it pointed unknowingly in his face. The partially charged shot is fired and X is knocked down, face slightly scorched.

Shinja freaks, "Aaahhhh! Oh my God! X! X, are you okay?"

X pushes himself up and replies, "Yeah, I'm alright."

"Are you sure?" she asks helping him up.

"Yeah. I think I see why it's still in the testing stages; you need to learn how to fire the shot. Good thing that last one was weak."

"...It was?"

"Mm-hmm. That was no more than 10%. Now if it was maybe 40%, I may have been knocked out for a bit, but not badly damaged."

"I'm sorry, X. If Zero Nightmare didn't attack..."

"It's not your fault, Shinja. I wasn't the greatest when I started out either. No Reploid's that perfect right away."

"I guess. But how are we gonna bust the door open?"

A voice echoes, "No need to. I'm over here."

The two look around as they recall the solar chargers and bring out their hands. Shinja goes on full alert, making the saber fully extend. They look at the destroyed Sigma head (the one that fired the blast piercing both X and Zero) and see an odd figure. Before they could approach, Zero Nightmare teleports in. Something wasn't right about him either. Sparks come flying from the crystal in his helmet as well as most of his head. Dents cover the entire helmet, indicating something was removed against his will by force. His eyes didn't appear normal either, both glowing red with pupils so tiny they can barely be seen. The wound X had inflicted earlier had been repaired.

"What the? What happened to you?" Shinja asks, shocked something that bad would happen in just a little while.

When Zero Nightmare speaks, his voice is distorted and fuzzy, "M-must k-k-kill...! Blue...light...! MUST KILL...BLUE LIGHT!"

He attacks X in the blink of an eye easily shoving him against a wall, holding him up with the saber against his throat. X can't move and tries to focus on using his buster, but Zero Nightmare kicks it, completely destroying the entire forearm, rendering his only accessible weapon useless. Zero Nightmare presses harder intent on chocking X to death. Shinja knows she can't measure up to his new stregnth, but has no choice; she has to save X. She runs in, holding the saber far to her right with both hands. When she gets close, she swings the saber in a foward thrust, and it becomes charged with electricity turning blue. She hits Zero Nightmare, zapping him well enough to get him to drop X and jump back, falling backwards from improper landing. Shinja looks at her saber stunned and confused.

She asks, "Did...Did I just perform...Raijingeki?"

X coughs before saying, "Tha-that's the attack Zero obtained from defeating Web Spider! How on Earth did you use it just now?"

"Doesn't...mat-mat-matter. COPPER GLOW...BLUE LIGHT...**DIE!**" Zero Nightmare shouts as he gets up and soon dashes at them.

Shinja holds her saber horizontally with both hands preparing to block the next attack. Zero Nightmare does jump up and swing downward, Shinja being able to block the attack and throw him back. Both charge at each other getting ready to swing. While Zero Nightmare swings horizontally, Shinja is able to duck and quickly uses Raijingeki again, damaging his left leg. Zero Nightmare jumps back, and notices Shinja had cut deep enough to cause him to bleed. He looks at Shinja who is in a kendo-like stance. She tries to shoot him a glare, but inside she's afraid; she knows that if she makes one wrong move, both sh and X will die. That's when he shoots her a big evil grin, giggling hysterically. His hair puffs out to make himself look larger. Shinja is stricken with fear and is frozen stiff. Her face turns pale with fear and her eyes become smaller in an instant. Zero Nightmare holds his grin as he charges right at her, knowing she can't move.

X shouts, "Shinja, move! MOVE NOW!"

But it's already too late. Zero Nightmare slashes downward, giving her the same, but deeper wound, similar to Gate's. Blood comes flying out of her and wires are cut, sparks flying like crazy. Shinja falls completely stunned, but alive. She looks up to Zero Nightmare as he stares down at her, still holding his grin. She looks away closing her eyes, tears building knowing she made the biggest mistake she could make. As Zero Nightmare holds his saber high preparing to stab her, a charged plasma shot pierces right through him from behind, destroying his chest and abdomen, debris going flying from the exit wound. Shinja and X watch in shock as Zero Nightmare stands there stunned for a moment until his eyes stop glowing and he falls over to his side, dropping his saber. They see a figure standing in the shadows until it comes into the light shining through another quicksand trap; it was Zero, fully regenerated and alive. X stands up shocked at first, but then is able to smile.

"Zero? Zero, you're alive! I can't believe it!" X says in happiness.

"Huh? So you're still alive too, X. Seems like Sigma didn't defeat me after all." Zero says.

"{It's really Zero? Why do I still get the feling of impending doom?}" Shinja thinks, unable to move.

X continues, "Zero, I search everywhere for your parts, even your signal with no luck! But then Hunter Base received a signal coming from here!"

Zero replies, "I had to remain hidden in order to repair myself and heal up. And that signal wasn't me. It was a trap from whatever the hell that thing was."

"Either way, I'm glad we found you at last!" X says.

Zero asks, "We? Wait, what do you mean?"

X points to Shinja. Zero looks down next to him and sees her, and she gives a smile like she's in trouble.

Zero looks back at X unamused and asks, "Are you sure this one wasn't trying to kill you too?"

X replies, "No, she's got a bit of a history actually. She's not a Maverick. Her name is Shinja and she just joined the Hunters today."

"The signal Alia picked up indicated that the threat was minor, but I guess even sensors aren't perfect. We didn't expect to be attacked like that." Shinja explains.

"Then why the hell do you look like me?" Zero demands.

X interrupts, "Look, can we talk about this after we return to Hunter Base? Part of my right arm's destroyed, and she's badly damaged."

"That means I have to carry her, don't I?" Zero asks.

"I sure can't." X says.

Zero sighs, then proceeds to pick up Shinja having no choice in the matter. He looks at X who grins innocently before teleporting back to base. He looks at Shinja who tries to copy X's grin, only to be scowled at. He teleports back to base, arriving a few seconds later than X who is waiting for them in the doorway of the Teleportation Pod. With that, he follows X to Sick Bay on the other side of the base, where a Lifesavor admits all three of the Reploids. Zero places Shinja on a recherge bed and X sits next to her on another one. Zero sits next to X on another bed keeping his distance with Shinja. She starts to feel unaccepted and saddened by his actions and turn her head away so she's facing a window. Three other Lifesavors walk over to them and while two begin to analyze the damage X and Shinja received, Zero is told to lie down so he can be scanned for any Sigma Virus or Nightmare Virus. The scan reveals moments later that he is free of any foreign bodies and is free to leave. He chooses to stay wanting to hear Shinja's background. Before X could tell him anything, Shinja yelps at the sight of the tool her Lifesavor is about to use. A nurse overlooking everything says that putting her to sleep might be a good option; the tool is big and scary looking, almost looking like a type of clamp. The nurse grabs a mask mounted on the bed and straps it over Shinja's face, and presses a button releasing laughing gas. Without being able to struggle, Shinja falls under the spell of the gas and starts to drift off to sleep. The allows her Lifesavor to get to work repairing her.

X giggles and says, "She has so many quirks, it's adorable."

"Please tell me you're not falling for that cheap immitation." Zero says crosing his arms.

"What? No, no, it's nothing like that at all." X replies before geting serious, "Zero, there is a lot you need to know about her. She's not like the rest of us by any means."

"Clearly. Start explaining." Zero says.

X explains, "Okay, I'll try and sum things up. Shinja is not a Reploid; she's really a human soul placed into a Reploid body."

"What?" Zero asks.

"I'm not kidding. Before the Bermuda Triangle indcident, she was pretty much isolted by her peers and parents. She had this bully that would keep her from being with her friends, and later a group of girls that would tease her every day. After the incident, she and the other humans were eventually forced underground, but she wanted to leave and join us. Her parents said if she left, she'd be disowned, so she left anyway. However, after exploring the Eurasia crash site, she realized her oxygen tank was sabotaged, and the pollution was starting to suffocate her. That's when Gate came along and saved her, taking her back to his lab." X explains.

"...Gate?" Zero asks.

"I'll fill you in on that after. Gate found that the pollution was bad enough that it chopped off 10 years of Shinja's life, and she is afraid of death. So, Gate built this transfer machine and a Reploid body; the armor was her idea, stating it's a dedication to you. However, when she was returning to his lab after I rescued her, Infinity Mijinion had attacked and nearly killed her. The transfer had to be done before she passed, and it was successful. Now, she's still learning what it's like to be a Reploid and it looks like she has your old attacks; she used Raijingeki on Zero Nightmare." X explains, summing up all he knows.

"Let me get this straight: she has the worst life possible, she nearly died exploring the crash site, Gate saves her, she gets killed, and her soul winds up in a Reploid body with dedication armor?" Zero asks.

"Pretty much. She can tell you in more detail what exactly went on. With all that's happened in the past month, I've forgotten certain details." X replies.

"Just what has been going on in my absence?" Zero asks.

Douglas enters the room carrying a case full of tools. He had been contacted about X's destroyed arm and now has to repair it. As he approaches X, he sees the damage Shinja received and starts to feel uneasy. He places the case down and walks over to her, telling Lifesavor to stop. He takes a close look and finds that a shard from Zero Nightmare's saber remains in the wound. He asks for a pair of tweasers from his case. The nurse grabs it and hands it to him. Douglas then carefully reaches in with the tweasers and grabs he shard, and carefully removes it. That's when Shinja's eyes open and she rips off the mask struggling to get free. Lifesavor holds her down and tries to place he mask back on her, but she ends up accidentally punching him in the face and knocking him over. She falls onto the floor on her wound causing her pain. X realizes she's reacting out of fear, but from what he can't tell. He gets down from the bed onto his knees and places his only hand on her head. Shinja looks over seeing X, snapping out of her confusion but still showing signs that she's scared of something; she's shaking and her face is fairly pale.

"Yikes, that was one hell of a reaction, kid! What made you flip?" Douglas asks.

Shinja replies, "I saw his face! It flashed in my mind!"

"You mean Zero Nightmare, don't you?" X asks.

"Y-yeah..." Shinja answers.

"{I was afraid of this.} Shinja, you saw it yourself; he's destroyed. What your experiencing is just a bad memory." X says, trying to calm her down.

Lifesavor climbs back up using the recharge bed saying, "You've got to be kidding! Don't tell me her memory cirucuits have been affected!"

"I don't think that's the case. Whatever happened must've scared her pretty good. If she was traumatized, she'd be reacting more just from hearing that thing's name. Just repair the damage and get her to rest." Douglas says.

Lifesavor walks over and lifts Shinja back onto the bed. X sits back up on his and Douglas gets to work repairing his arm. Zero is unsure what to make of Shinja after her freak out. He gets up and decides to leave sick bay, telling X he'll be waiting in their room. X warns him of the mobile recharge bed as Zero leaves. He heads over to their room on the other side of the base and walks in. He sees the mobile recharge bed and all of Shinja's dropped items that had spilled out of the bag she placed them in. Not wanting to leave them on the floor, he starts putting her items back in the bag. He picks up the Dragonfly aciidentally turning it on, seeing the colored light slowly change. He turns it off and puts it in the bag. The last item he picks up in the framed picture of her and Gate. The glass had broken from hitting the floor; a large crack ran diagnally across. He puts it in the bag and pushed it under the bed. Zero stands back up and looks around the room seeing nothing has changed in over a month.

That night, X and Shinja are fully repaired. Douglas and the Lifesavor working on X ran into several issues when trying to repair X's arm. Shinja had to be sedated again, but this time her repairing went much smoother with the shard being removed. They are released with X having to help Shinja walk as the effects of the laughing gas are still in her system. He takes her back to his room, and upon walking in find Zero already asleep. X helps Shinja into the mobile recharge bed and she falls right to sleep, the bed immediatly doing its job. X walks over to his bed and as he sits down, Shinja wakes up. She looks for her bag finding it under her bed and pulls it out. She takes out the dragonfly and puts it at the foot of her bed, turning it on. As the colored lights begin to dance, she lies back down and falls asleep. X then lies down, knowing Shinja's comfortable for now and begins to drift off.

Meanwhile, back in Gate's Lab, Gate had successfully repaired himself and Dynamo. With Gate spending some time in Shinja's room accepting the fact she's not around, Dynamo is exploring more of the place. He walks passed the main lab, but then backs up and peers around the corner. Isoc is still intent on decyphering more of Zero's DNA, but is actually looking at Shinja's blueprints. He sees that a very small percent of Zero's DNA was used to give Shinja her attacks, but nothing more. He tries to see if it was used to give her any other abilities to which he cannot find. Shinja is purely on her own in learning how to fight. Isoc then receives a transmission from High Max, a small transmission screen appearing on the computer screen.

"What is it, High Max? Can't you see I'm busy?" Isoc asks.

"Sorry to disturb you, but Metal Shark Player has discovered Zero Nightmare's remains. He has been destroyed." High Max reports.

"...You've got to be kidding. How was he destroyed?"

"It appears he was destroyed by a charged plasma shot. Excuse me for asking, but why were there dents all over his head? That wasn't from his recent battle."

"That was me. I had to remove a piece of his electronic brain in order to make him more aggressive."

"I see. Well then, what shall we do?"

"Zero Nightmare can no longer function, correct? He's nothing but scrap metal now. With Shinja living with the Hunters now, we have to be careful about attacking. But for now, we need to lay low. I will speak with you later."

"Okay then. Ending transmission."

The transmission ends. Dynamo now knows that it was indeed Isoc who planned everything. Isoc's constant exposure to Zero's DNA is causing him to go mad, but odly enough is still in control of himself. Dynamo rushes away from the main lab and heads to Shinja's room, where Gate still is, wondering if he made the right decision. Dynamo calls his name, and Gate looks over at him.

"Gate, the suspicions we had about Isoc are true!" Dynamo reports.

"I had a feeling. In that case, we have to deal with this delicately. One wrong move and he'll sic High Max on us. I'll let the Hunters know about this tomorrow." Gate says.

* * *

><p><strong>Trivia:<strong>  
>1) When X explains the buster to Shinja, there is a piece seen emerging after the hand is recalled. I call it the "solar charger" since that one part doesn't appear to have a specific name.<br>2) Shinja's buster is a sleeker version of Zero's bulky Z-Buster; it is more cynlindrical like the autocannon.  
>3) Shinja's inability to fully use her buster is a proven fact that she really doesn't know how to use it, despite knowing how it works.<br>4) Zero Nightmare's lines almost mirror what he says in one of the stages X encounters him.  
>5) Although Zero isn't obtained until after his Nightmare counterpart's defeat, he appears to save both X and Shinja. In reality, when I got Zero back, it was in the Central Museum. From there on I used him even though Sigma kills him in the end...I despise that ending.<br>6) X shares his knowledge of Shinja leaving out certain details, and states he left them out after what has been going on within the last month. Zero's knowledge of Gate in X6 is unclear whether he knows him through the events prior to him being playable again, or after he becomes playable.  
>7) Isoc discovers a very small percent of Zero's DNA was used in Shinja's armor's construction in order to give her the attacks obtained from the X4 bosses. The fact that it is not affecting her could be due to the fact that she is really a human soul in a Reploid body. Whether it will have a negative effect later on is uncertain.<p> 


	5. Reploid Waltz

Character Thoughts: "{abc}"  
>Translated Speech: "<em>abc<em>"

Chapter 5:  
>Reploid Waltz<p>

It's the next day. Shinja is in Maverick Hunter HQ's Laboratory working on her Timcanpy. In the two hours she's been up, she has been able to complete her robotic golem and is currently working out how it flies before inserting the electronic brain. So far, she has the movements of the wings correct and the hovering mode working properly, but it cannot stay in the air for more than five seconds. She looks over the blueprints for it, and finds she missed out on adding an fan system so it can actually fly. She looks around the lab for blueprints on hover units that use a type of fan-like propeller to fly, finally locating a model propeller unit. Shinja proceeds to disassemble it to see how the system works, and creates her own version for Timcanpy. Within another hour, brining the time to nine thirty, she is able to work out the right kind of propeller system to keep Timcanpy airborne. After running several flying tests making sure it can fly, hover, flip, u-turn, turn tightly, spin, spin in place, and land, she inserts the electronic brain, bringing it to life. The face of this robotic golem is really a screen, as it is built to display certain images to convey messages.

These images she has chosen for Timcanpy include the following: a swirl meaning it is dizzy; "!" means shock or surprise; "!" means danger is near, approaching something dangerous, or in a dangerous area; a skull and crossbones means that there is too much danger; "?" means it is confused or can be used to ask a question; "^^" means it is happr or is proud of something; "TT^TT" stands for being sad or upset; a tick mark or vein means it is mad or annoyed; an images of a flame means it is enraged and may attack; a sword stands for fight while a shield stands for defend, in terms of battle; an image DNA is a warning for a nearby or present Nightmare Virus; "X^X" indicates a Sigma Virus; a heart means it is showing affection or has a crush on something, can also mean it loves something; "**X**" means no or incorrect while "**O**" means yes or correct; a thermometer means someone's not well, or that it isn't well; a jagged S styled like X's or Zero's insignias stands for Shinja, and X and Zero's insignias stand for them; a diamond-shape stands for Gate and a D stands for Dynamo; "HQ" means Maverick Hunter Head Quarters; "GL" means Gate's Lab; and finally a bunch of z's means it is sleeping, or indicating something or someone is sleeping.

"Okay Timcanpy, let's see how the images work. What is your image for 'yes'?" Shinja asks.

Timcanpy displays a circle.

"Good. What is 'no'?"

Timcanpy displays an x.

"Perfect. Okay, I'll give you a tricky one. Display the images for X and Zero."

Timcanpy displays their respected insignias; a blue X and the red Z.

"Excellent. One more test: display the image for being upset or sad."

Timcanpy displays a TT^TT face.

"Awesomeness, everything's working perfectly! Now, I did give you a voice, but I had to limit your speech which is why you display images. What is your purpose?"

Timcanpy replies having a voice that _L_ from _Death Note_ used to disguise his voice, "Purpose is Navigator."

"...Augh, I could've done better with your voice. But whatever, it'll do. Come, let's go see if anyone else is up."

Timcanpy flies up and lands on Shinja's shoulder. She leaves the lab and heads for a holographic chamber in order to train. The Holographic Chambers are located within the center of the base, and right now Shinja is within the East Wing of the base; located here is the Sick Bay as well. On the opposite side, the West Wing, is where the bedrooms are located. As Shinja heads through the hallways, she notices Zero at the end of the hallway, being able to see his hair from around the corner. Remembering from yesterday how he felt about her, she tries to stick to the opposite wall and not stare. Timcanpy displays "Z?" asking if it is Zero, but Shinja does not reply fearing he might hear her. As she approaches the corner, she refuses to make eye contact and quickly turns heading away.

"Shinja." Zero suddenly calls, having spotted her.

"!" Timcanpy displays.

Reluctantly Shinja replies facing him, "Nani?"

"HQ was contacted this morning by Gate and Dynamo. It turns out that Isoc was the one responsible for that thing's attack yesterday. He's also teamed up with High Max, which means you're their target." Zero explains.

"Can't Geito-kun and Dynamo do something?"

"Not at the moment. If either of them confront Isoc about it, they could wind up dead. And if I know Dynamo, that isn't his style."

"..."

"Also, X asked me to train you since your fighting style is closest to mine. Signas won't assign you into a unit you've learned how to fight. Until then, you're my apprentice."

"I'm hoping X didn't force you to train me..."

"No, more like begged. Meet me by Holographic Chamber D-4 in an hour."

Zero walks away leaving Shinja standing unsure about the situation. She only becomes depressed as she knows how he feels about her armor looking like his, and the fact that she isn't a true Reploid. She turns back around and decides to locate X, but not before becoming completely discouraged and confused.

Shinja begins to think, "{X wants Zero to train me? Is this his way of telling him to get to know me? I have a feeling it won't work...it's not like Zero will go easy on me. Damn...Geito-kun, I think you made a mistake.}"

Meanwhile, in the Navigation Room, X, Signas, and Alia discus the matter about Isoc being the actual Maverick, but there's nothing Gate or Dynamo can do without getting themselves injured beyond repair. High Max is a powerful Maverick, and he could easily punch holes in even Gate's Battle Armor. Gate has told them that he used a very small amount of Zero's DNA to give Shinja her attacks, and it somehow contained the data for moves obtained from nearly one year ago during the war with Repliforce. That is all he used as the armor is strictly from scratch, all of it from Shinja's blueprints, though he added some programs and parts that would come in handy. He has assured them that Shinja has a very low chance of going Maverick, at least lower than 1%. Although good, her stress levels need to be monitored as those could trigger something negative to happen. As they discuss the matter knowing all the details, Shinja enters the room with Timcanpy on her head.

"Oh Shinja, what is it?" Signas asks.

"...X, can I talk to you?" Shinja asks, an upset look on her face.

"Outside." Timcanpy speaks.

X looks at the others before looking back at her replying, "Yeah, sure."

X approaches Shinja who takes him just outside the door. She looks up at him trying not to let any form of sadness get the best of her. He sees she's upset and tries to hold back any seriousness.

X asks, "Shinja-chan, what's the matter?"

Shinja responds, "Zero told me that you told him to train me."

"Yeah, I did. I think it'd be a good way for you two to get to know each other."

"X, did you not see the anger in his eyes yesterday whenever he looked at me? He tried to avoid making eye contact the entire time he carried me to Sick Bay."

"He just feels uneasy because of your armor. I've told him a few times this morning that your armor is a dedication to him after he disappeared, but I don't think I'm getting through."

"I don't feel right training with him. I feel like he's really angry with me. Even when he spoke to me earlier he seemed aggitated."

"Hmm...you know what, I know you must've went through a lot to create that armor, but what if you came up with a different design?"

"A different design?"

"Yeah, like...I know after fusing with your world there's this other game called 'MegaMan Zero'. Why not use one of those designs instead of running around in such a bulky armor that you can barely move in? You'd be able to move much quicker and smoother."

"...But, then I wouldn't be well protected from attacks."

"Oh you'll be protected; Douglas will make sure of that. He's always coming up with new parts for my armors."

"...I don't know."

"You know what? Let's find you a new design. I'll tell Zero that you'll meet him at the chamber this afternoon."

"!" Timcanpy displays.

"This afternoon? X, are your circuits running okay in your head?"

"Douglas is good at making all kinds of armor; he can make you new armor in an hour."

"Wait X, I don't know about this."

"Too bad."

X takes hold of Shinja's hand and leads her back into the Navigation Room. He calls over Douglas and says that he needs him to make a new armor for Shinja. Douglas agrees without hesitation, eager to work on something other than the Enigma Cannon trying to revive it. Shinja shows her uneasyness by trying to pull her hand out of X's, but it's no use. X brings up the game he mentioned to Shinja, and Douglas instantly brings it up using Alia's computer soon earning him a slap for intrusion. Douglas then has X and Shinja follow him to his room in the Garage within the Northern Sector of the base.

Meanwhile, in a deep part of the lab located underground, Isoc has lead High Max to a large capsule covered in a sheet. Isoc removes the sheet and reveals a half rebuilt Sigma. This surprises High Max as the last battle between Sigma and the Hunters should have ended him. But, Isoc had found a few remains of the Maverick and began rebuilding him using bits of the Nightmare Virus to give him a stronger structure and strength. Isoc reveals he has even used some of Zero's DNA to make Sigma virtually unstopable.

"Uh, Isoc, isn't that a bit much to add onto a Maverick who is already too strong?" High Max questions.

"Of course not. I want to see those petty Maverick Hunters fall. I also want to watch that little brat be tortured before she's killed in front of Gate." Isoc replies.

"Clearly you've gone mad. I think you've become too obsessed with Zero's DNA."

"SILENCE, you fool! Sigma will become my new lead in destroying X since that troublesome Zero has failed miserably."

"Zero's true nature failed to be restored over a month ago. Are you certain Sigma won't turn on you?"

"He won't. He and I have the same goals in mind. Even if he does somehow turn, he'll still try to destroy X, Zero, and Shinja."

"{I hope your right.}"

Outside the lab, Gate stands looking off into the distance, facing the direction in which the Hunter Base is located. Dynamo returns on his Ride Chaser carting in random parts he found scattered throughout the area. He sees Gate is lost in thought as Wolfang teleports in from his area. Gate snaps out of it becoming aware that someone else is near. He looks and sees Wolfang and Dynamo before facing away.

"Gate, are you okay? You haven't been yourself since you let Shinja stay with X." Dynamo asks.

Gate sighs and answers, "I'm really starting to wonder if I made the right decision. To be honest, her not being around is starting to get to me."

"It's normal, Gate. You've become so attached to her that you miss her. Believe me, I find myself deep in thought now that she's not here. But at least she's safe, and she can learn to be a true Reploid." Wolfang says.

"I'm worried. I told them I used a very smal amount of Zero's DNA to give her the attacks she needs...I'm really hoping the're still treating her as one of them and not isolating her." Gate replies.

Dynamo says, "Dude, you need to stop worrying so much. We may not be humans, but even stress can cause all kinds of damage to us as well. I know X and Zero; they're very strong. They won't let anything bad happen to her. You need to relax before you're stuck in a constnt state of worry to the point your brain literally fries."

Things become silent before Gate faces them and says, "You know, you're right, Dynamo. I need to trust those two. Okay, I'm going to do what Signas instructed me with a create a solution for the Nightmare Virus, and maybe the Maverick Virus as well."

"There ya go! Oh, I also got the parts you were looking for." Dynamo says.

"Ah, excellent. Alright, help me get them to my personal lab; I've got work to do." Gate says.

Within the Hunter Base, nearly an hour later, Douglas has constructed new armor for Shinja, keeping the color pattern she has. The armor is a replica of Zero's from the game X mentioned, all the red being copper instead. She still has her scarf as well, and the saber pack is mounted on the back of the new armor. Shinja's old armor is removed and Douglas keps it so that he can work on it and make modifications to it to make it easier for Shinja to move in. The new armor is placed on Shinja and she emerges from the garage feeling a bit violated. Although she misses her old armor, she starts to like the new one as she is able to walk much smoother as well as run, jump, and flip. X is glad she is adjusting well to the new armor, and tells her that she needs to meet up with Zero for training. This quickly upsets her before X says that he'd bring her there.

It takes the two several minutes to reach the Holographic Chambers as X has Shinja race him. Although the armor she has on now gives her better movement, she is unable to outrun X as she hasn't adjusted to the dash system, causing her to trip and fall flat on the ground. Zero watches this and is confused about Shinja's new look while X helps her up. They walk over to Zero who is unable what to make of the armor.

"Okay, what the hell is going on?" Zero asks.

"Go ahead Shinja, tell him. I'm right here." X insists.

Shinja takes a deep breath becoming nervous and replies, "Well, t-to be honest, the way you reacted to me yesterday made me feel...well, discouraged. It seemed like you didn't want to accept me at all after learning my origin and what I really am, and when you spoke to me this morning...I felt like those feelings were confirmed. I told X and this happened; I have new armor that barely looks like yours, and I can actually move a lot better in it."

A tense silence takes hold of the conversation as Zero gives Shinja a very stern look. She starts to back off trying to hide behind X who expected something like this to happen.

"Look Zero, her previous armor, the Dedication Armor, wasn't meant to insult you in any way. As far as the humans and us were concerned, you were assumed to be dead. You should feel honored that Shinja went through such lengths to try and make you feel honored; not many humans really respect us Reploids after what happened. The only reason she changed her armor is because she wants to feel accepted by you. I've already accepted her, especially after I found her in that museum." X explains, Shinja grabbing his hand midsentence.

"X, she's chosen armor from that game where I'm pretty much the only Reploid left. I've watched the gameplay online-" Zero tries to say before Shinja interrupts, "Nothing I do will get you to accept me like the others have, will it?"

"What do you mean?" Zero asks.

Things grow silent before Shinja surprises them both by teleporting away. This only angers X.

"Great going, Zero! Now you've really done it!" X shouts, causing other Reploids in the halls to look.

"I didn't do anything." Zero responds.

"Zero, all Shinja wants is for you to accept her for who she is. I don't see her as some cheap immitation of you. I don't see her as another Reploid. I see her as...I see her like she's a sister. You see her as a human trying to immitate you, and that's not who Shinja is."

"..."

"I'm gonna let Alia know Shinja ran off. When we locate her, you'll be the one retrieving her, not me."

"..."

X walks away in a rage as Zero begins to think, "{X, you barely know Shinja, and you're this attached? I envy your ability to sympathize with lesser beings.}"

X arrives in the Navigation Room and tells Alia that Shinja ran off and needs to be located immediatly. She tells him that she already located Shinja telling him she's just outside the base on the roof. Zero arrives moments later and X lets him know where Shinja is. Although Zero is reluctant to leave to find her, he aplogizes to X for his actions upon returning. He then teleports to the roof and find Shinja sitting on the edge, able to hear her sobbing. Guilt starts to settle in as Zero approaches her. Before he could get close, the alarm suddenly sounds, Alia's voice alerting everyone that a Maverick is close by. That's when Metal Shark Player emerges from the ground, jumping high and grabbing Shinja. He lands just yards away from Zero holding Shinja in a chokehold and holding an anchor to her head.

Zero shouts, "Let her go, Metal Shark Player!"

"Sorry, not gonna happen. I'm very interested in Shinja's complex DNA, and I'd like to analyze it." Player responds.

"How complex could it be? She's a human soul in a Reploid body." Zero asks.

Shinja yells, "Is that all I am? Just a soul in a Reploid body?"

Player laughs and says, "Ah Zero, you are truly naive. I've witnessed her body's creation, and I've gotten to know her just a little. Humans are very interesting, and so is their flawed DNA. We were featured in games once, and that's all the humans get to learn; they don't get to see what we're truly like and how we'd really react. Shinja's got a lot of favorites from the games we're in, and you've been at the top of her list for a long time. I don't know if you've heard yet, but she has just a small amount of _your DNA_ inside her."

"DAMMIT IT, PLAYER! What's wrong with you? Just how much do you want him to hate me?" Shinja shouts.

"Quiet you!" Player threatens. "So Zero, what will you do? Will you rescue this pathetic being, or are you going to let her die?"

Zero glares angrily at Metal Shark Player, clenching his fists. Shinja looks at him but then looks away, not bothering to struggle now that he knows something she hasn't even told Gate. Player looks at Zero with questioning eyes, amazed that he isn't trying to attack him.

Player sighs and says, "Well, you silence says everything. Guess you're not this awesome Reploid that saved the Earth over a month ago."

Player places his anchor over Shinja's head, pointing one of the sharp hooks at her. She closes her eyes embracing for the impact, but not before Zero fires his saber using his buster at Player's head, giving the saber extra velocity to shoot through Player's head cleanly. Player drops Shinja before he collpases onto his back. Shinja looks at Player seeing the gian hold in the middle of his head. She's amazed that Zero decided to save her. Zero jumps over and picks up his saber, putting it away before turning to face Shinja. He walks over to her and she looks away closing her eyes, thinking he's going to finish her himself.

Zero squats down and proves that thought wrong as he asks, "Are you okay, Shinja?"

Shinja opens her eyes and looks at Zero surprised and replies, "Y-yeah...why did you save me?"

"You know, X is right. I've only been looking at what you are instead of who you are. If you want to create armor like mine, then feel free to. I'd be honored to let you do so, as long as you don't plan on replacing me."

"But, I have your DNA in me. Aren't you furious?"

"I can't say I like that idea, but if it's for something vital, then I can't really be mad at you."

"Are you sure? What about my armors?"

"Don't worry about it."

"...Zero..."

"Shinja, I really am sorry for how I treated you so far. Let's start over by letting me train you, okay?"

"...Are you really sorry, or did X-" "X had nothing to do with what I just said. He only got me to see I was wrong. And Metal Shark Player got me to see that truth more. I can't let someone innocent die at the hands of a Maverick."

"...In that case, I'm sorry for my outburst."

"Don't be; it's natural for you to act like that. Reploid body or not, you're still only human. Just don't run off like that again, okay?"

"Yeah. Um, what's gonna happen to Player? He hasn't exploded yet."

"Hahaha, okay, not everything has a self-destruct system. We're going to notify Gate first and see what he wants to do."

"What about the Reploids?"

"Ah well, we don't explode into little orbs of light like that. Come on, let's get inside."

* * *

><p><strong>Trivia:<strong>  
>1) I may not know how the true Timcanpy communicated, but this is just a robotic copy with different ways of communicating. It may still get eaten by robotic cats, like the real one, but we'll see what happens in future chapters.<br>2) Timcanpy having L's disguised voice is just to point out it's only a robotic navigator.  
>3) "Nani" for those that might not know, is Japanese for "what".<br>4) X's begging for Zero to train Shinja resembles how he acts in the manga; although I haven't been able to find/read all existing volumes online, X is a lot more childish while Zero is still just as serious as he is in the games.  
>5) X brings up the game MegaMan Zero. Do not forget, here, their world fused with ours, so now they have knowledge of the games they are featured in. The way X brings it up could mean he has only seen the designs and is oblivious to the storyline.<br>6) Shinja's new armor grants her smoother movements. This could suggest that the bulkier armor was too much for her to try and control all at once.  
>7) Instead of Gate being the one to rebuild Sigma, it's Isoc. This is a close reference to the act that Dr. Wily, Zero's creator, may have found ways to exist as data in other Mavericks such as Serges. This is also referencing the fact that Sigma brings up Wily on different occasions in the series, and that other bodies have been made for him. This time, however, instead of just being rebuilt, Isoc is placing in the Nightmare Virus DNA and DNA from Zero in order to make him more powerful.<br>8) Zero's reluctantness to accept Shinja could be from the fact that he does feel insulted from her dedication armor, as well as the new one. He even tries to explain the MMZ game to X, but Shinja interrupts him.  
>9) Zero finally being abl to talk with Shinja and apologizing to her means he's starting to accept her. He even reveals that everything featured in the games isn't always true; don't forget, when Zero Nightmare was killed, he did not explode like enemies do in the games. Again, their world has fused with ours, so they know all of what we have.<p> 


	6. Flawed DNA

Character Thoughts: "{abc}"  
>Translated Speech: "<em>abc<em>"

Chapter 6:  
>Flawed DNA<p>

"I see, so there was no choice but to take out Metal Shark Player, huh?" Gate asks.

"It was either that or Shinja dies." Signas says. "So, we still have his body. Is there anything you might want to do?"

Gate hesitates before Dynamo jokes, "We could turn him into fish sticks!"

"Not happening." Gate replies. "There's nothing I need from Player's body, and I'm not resurrecting him twice. You're free to turn him into scrap metal. His weapon might come in handy for you guys over me."

"Are you sure?" Signas asks.

"Positive. I need to get back to finding a way to get rid of the Nightmare Virus. I'll try keeping in touch." Gate answers.

"Okay then. Ending transmission." Signas says.

With Gate having been told about Metal Shark Player's demise and Shinja now being trained by Zero, one threat has been eliminated. However, that doesn't mean that Isoc doesn't know Player's been defeated. While Isoc is hard at work now trying to rebuild Sigma instead of going literally mad over Zero's DNA, High Max has decided to contact Infinity Mijinion. He tells him that Shinja is still alive.

"That shark was always too soft. I could see it in his eyes; he liked Shinja to a certain point. Removing his Emotion Chip wasn't enough to kill that little bitch." Mijinion says.

High Max says, "If Zero has decided to protect Shinja, we're in trouble. Pretty soon she'll know all of his older attacks. She has already learned Raijingeki just from fighting Zero Nightmare."

"I can't exactly just blindly attack the Hunters like Player did. What should the next move be?"

"Hmmm...perhaps we should lure the Hunters to the Weapon Center. At least your creation will be able to shine at full power."

"Ohohoho, yes! I've installed a new weapon into Illumina! Oh I can't wait to test it out on those little fleas."

"I trust you'll plan your strike. I'll leave that to you, but don't die on us, got it? We cannot afford another casualty."

"Understood. Oh by the way, how's the zombie coming along?"

"Will you stop calling Sigma a zombie? He hasn't been activated yet; it's too soon. But, he is coming along well. Isoc is rebuilding him as we speak."

"Excellent. If we are to fail, at least we have backup! Oh, let Isoc know I've developed a nice little weapon for Sigma. He can come pick it up at any time."

"I'll let him know."

At Maverick Head Quarters, Metal Shark Player's anchor is kept from being turned into scrap metal as it contains data that X and Zero can copy and give themselves new techniques. Player's body is currently being analyzed to see if there are parts of him the Reploids can use. As this is happening, Zero is training Shinja trying to teach her the basics. So far she has learned how to dodge attacks as well as reflect them and basic melee skills. However, her learning to dash isn't going as smoothly. Each time she attempts to dash, she either trips and falls flat on her face, or manages to do it but hits a wall. Timcanpy watches and with each failure displays "**X**" before finally finding a shelf to lay on and fall asleep. X checks in on the two only to witness Shinja fail another dash attempt and fall flat on her face. He facepalms before approaching them as Zero helps her back up. Shinja shakes off her dizziness of the sudden fall before noticing X. Zero looks over and notices X is carrying Player's anchor.

"What are you doing with that shark's anchor?" Zero asks.

"We can pick up a new technique from it." X says holding it up.

Shinja looks at the anchor saying, "I know I won't be able to. Out of what Douglas could find, I can't copy the Investogators' attacks."

"I wouldn't worry about it. You've learned how to use Raijingeki pretty quick. That means you have seven other older abilities to learn still." X says as he puts the anchor down.

Zero says, "Actually, I was thinking of teaching her how to use another weapon besides her saber and malfunctioning buster."

Shinja glares at him growling, "That's not funny!"

"Oh yeah? What kind of weapon?" X asks.

Zero replies, "Well, while I was teaching her how to dodge more complex attacks and reflect them, I noticed during the reflection training that it takes her at least a full minute to successfully push the attack away. If the attack is stronger, she can't reflect it at all."

Shinja starts to look around for Timcanpy as the guys discuss her progress. X tells Zero that her failing to reflect a stronger attack is normal as she's still learning everything at once, but Zero argues that even rookies can reflect attacks as strong as 60% power; Zero was only giving her 40% power and she couldn't reflect even that with her bare hands. With her saber she can reflect only up to 60% power when rookies can reflect up to at least 79% power, if not greater, with a weapon. Knowing that, another weapon for Shinja might be the way to go if it can help her defend against strong attacks. Zero then starts to think what if a shield can be made that can absorb attacks and then blast it back with increased power. Although it sounds like a great idea, it would take a while to create even by Douglas's standards, and Shinja would be made even more vulnerable if there are multpile enemies attacking.

As the two try to think of a way to improve Shinja's defenses so she can fight alongside them, Shinja finds Timcanpy on a high shelf and is unable to reach him. She hasn't learned how to double jump yet, she tries anyway wanting to get her companion. She actually ends up performing a wall kick and falls onto her back, the saber pack detaching itself upon impact. She sits up placing a hand on her head and looks back up. She stands and looks around for things to stack. She finds rolled up blue matts (like the kinds used in schools) and one by one, begins to roll them in place standing up a couple of them. There are also cement blocks lying around used for karate chopping planks of wood in half, and Shinja uses them to hold the rolled up matts in place so they don't roll away. She starts climbing them, easily making her way up to Timcanpy and grabs him, but soon slips and falls into one of the matts she has standing, becoming stuck half way in the tight roll.

Timcanpy wakes up and sees that Shinja is stuck and can't get free. Although she tries to free herself without calling for X and Zero, Timcanpy flies over to the two and displays a jagged S as well as "!D!", telling them that Shinja is in trouble. They look over and find her stuck in one of the matts unable to get free. X facepalms while Zero laughs before getting his nose flicked by Timcanpy's tail.

Elsewhere, deep within Isoc's new lair of a laboratory, Infinity Mijinion teleports in, carrying the new weapon wrapped in a sheet he made for Sigma. Isoc is hard at work untangling some old wires within Sigma's chest and placing in new wires. High Max is carrying in an electrical generator that will reactivate Sigma so that Isoc can speak with him. Mijinion and High Max both approach Isoc with High Max placing the generator down. Mijinion is first to grab Isoc's attention by makiing his body glow.

"Ah Mijinion. You have the weapon I presume?" Isoc asks.

Mijinion replies, "Sure do. This little bay will guarantee the end of those Maverick Hunters, including that bitch, Shinja. I present to you..." he uncovers the weapon, "...the Nightmare Canon!"

The weapon looks similar to Vile's shoulder cannon, but instead have spikes mounted near the front surrounding the opening of the barrel, smaller spikes lining the rest of the barrel, the pack on the end contains energy from the Nightmare Virus, and a visor meant for the best targeting.

"It looks evil...but is it strong?" High Max asks, not amused.

Mijinion replies, "Of course it is. Don't forget, I'm basically several super computers put into one tiny being. Anyway, this baby is the greatest thing I've ever created...of course being only second to Illumina. It uses the Nightmare Virus itself to replenish any energy wasted, fires anything from plasma shots to destructive beams or lasers depending on the setting it's put on. It can be mounted anywhere on the body so Sigma can have it put on his back, on his shoulders..."

High Max gets smart continuing with a grin, "On his crotch..."

Isoc looks at High Max with a look saying, "Really?"

"He said 'anywhere'." High Max replies smirking.

"It is not meant as a crotch gun; we've already listed too many jokes." Mijinion says, "I've tested this many, many times to make sure it can even take down X and Zero, and if used to its fullest potential, it can vaporize them into nothing but dust."

"Beautiful work, Mijinion. Once Sigma is fully rebuilt and functional, I'll have him choose where he wants it attached. I'm sure he'll be pleased with such a strong weapon." Isoc praises before turning to High Max, "Okay you, place the generator behind the pod; the connections go in the back for some reason."

In the mean time in Gate's personal lab, Gate is tirelessly working on a program that will get rid of the Nightmare Virus, but so far hasn't had much luck. Dynamo enters the large lab with pieces of Zero Nightmare thinking that any data from him will be useful. However, he enters the lab finding an overly frustrated and upset Gate. Dynamo thinks Gate is worrying about Shinja again, and although this time he's right, he didn't expect to find that Gate discovered a flaw in using a small percent of Zero's DNA to give Shinja her attacks.

Dynamo puts the pieces next to Gate who hasn't noticed yet and looks at the screen. A message window flashes a red "WARNING" and describes what is wrong. He is shocked to see what the flaw is, but doesn't completely understand. When he asks Gate, he turns his head and looks up at Dynamo with the most intimidating glare.

"Don't you get it? If Shinja becomes overly stressed out, it'll trigger the small amount of the Maverick Virus that still exists inside the small amount of DNA! She could end up going Maverick!" Gate explodes.

"Are you serious? Didn't you know this before hand?" Dynamo asks.

"Before I did anything, I analyzed it with her help, and at the time nothing was wrong. Now all of a sudden this pops up out of the blue!"

"...We gotta tell-" "No, we can't."

"Why not? They need to know!"

"If they find out, they'll quickly label her a Maverick and try to dispose of her."

"Nonsense! I know X and Zero; they'd be pleading for a vaccine to be given to her."

"Why do I doubt that?"

"Gate..."

"Dynamo, I can't risk Shinja becoming a lab rat like that. It wouldn't be fair after what Mijinion did to her."

"..."

"I can't let them know."

Most of the day just seems to pass by. X and Zero were able to remove the Special Weapon Chip from Metal Shark Players anchor, and in turn were able to add Metal Anchor and Rakukoujin to their weaponry. Shinja is making progress with her training having finally gotten a hold of her dash, but now has issues stopping in time before falling over or crashing into something. Zero teaches her how to use her buster, which amazingly she still has, even if it looks like an autocannon. At first it looked as if she could never turn off the safety function that she and X discovered, until Zero had a better look at it. He discovered that Gate had set a voice command in order for Shinja to use it, the command simply being "Buppansu", which can roughly mean in Japanese "to fire a gun". Should Shinja not want to use the buster any longer to place the safety back on, all she has to say is "Cancel Fire".

Knowing this now, Shinja utters the command and the safety for the buster is turned off, allowing her to use it. The visor drops down from her helmet, and she takes aim at a target and fires a perfect plasma shot. She even goes for a charge shot, and it hits the target perfectly. Happy she can use her buster, she turns the safety back on by uttering the other phrase. With still plenty of energy to spare Shinja wants to keep training, but Zero soon tells her that it's time to end the training for today and will continue tomorrow.

He leads her and Timcanpy out of the chamber, but upon walking out find Lifesavor standing in front of them. Timcanpy flies up to him displaying a "?" trying to ask why he's here, but doesn't get a response. The flying orb returns to Shinja and attaches itself to her back.

"Lifesavor, what's with the uber stern look?" Zero asks.

"I've analyzed the shard of Zero Nightmare that Douglas pulled out of her. There's something disturbing about it and I'd like to speak with you, her, and X." Lifesavor replies.

Shinja asks, "You found something _disturbing_ about it? How can there not be?"

Lifesavor answers, "It's got something to do with you, Shinja."

Unable to respond, Shinja can only look at him with fear in her eyes. Lifesavor tells them to follow him as he contacts X through the communicator placed in his helmet. She looks to Zero seeking comfort but all he can do is pet her on the head and tell her not to worry. X soon meets up with them outside the Command Center located within the Southern Sector of the base and follows them to a deeper section of he same sector to the Infirmary. Although "Sick Bay" and "Infirmary" means the same thing, "Sick Bay" is meant for damaged Reploids while the Infirmary is meant for more private matters such as revealing information that other Reploids shouldn't hear. Lifesavor takes them into a room which looks like any other room in a doctor's office, and Shinja immediatly sits up on the table while X and Zero stand on either side of her. Lifesavor grabs Shinja's electronic file (which is really an iPad-like computer) from the bin mounted on the wall before shuting the door and bringing up his find on it.

Shinja looks around the room noticing that there is only a aneroid sphygmomanometer and a stethoscope hanging on the wall next to her, but not any other medical instrument such as the light used to look in ears, mouths, and eyes. X tells her it's because Reploids aren't humans so there isn't much need for a lot of medical instruments to be hanging around. Not to mention some Reploids get ideas and steal them, so they are stored in Sick Bay instead. The other reason is due to the fact that unlike humans Reploids can't get diseases so there isn't a need to keep such instruments in the rooms, and the Infirmary is used to make quick diagnoses if a Reploid is having a small problem with their systems, like a malfunctioning arm or an eye isn't working properly.

Lifesavor finally speaks, "What I'm about to tell you cannot leave this room, understand?"

"Understood. What's going on?" X asks.

Lifesavor looks at all three of them before answering, "The shard that Douglas removed from Shinja had her blood on it, and after learning Zero's DNA was used in he body's construction, I took a look at it to make sure nothing was out of the ordinary. What I found, however, was something completely unexpected."

"So what's swimming around in my veins?" Shinja asks, crossing her arms.

"...Despite the fact that the amount used was enough to give you your attacks, it comes with a price. The Maverick Virus exists within that amount." Lifesavor reveals.

"The Maverick Virus exists within her? How is that possible? All of it passed onto Sigma when he punched my crystal!" Zero asks in shock.

Lifesavor responds, "It's benign right now, but I found that is Shinja becomes overly stressed out for any reason, it could trigger the virus."

"Don't we have a vaccine for it now?" X asks.

"No, we don't. We're still struggling to create a vaccine for the Sigma Virus." Lifesavor replies.

"Then remove it!" Shinja says.

"Shinja, it's not as simple as removing a tumor. Without Zero's DNA in you, you could either shut down completely since it was a vital part to your construction, or make you so weak that you'll never be able to fight. And if I'm correct, you're a born fighter; I don't want to take that away from you." Lifesavor explains.

X says, "In that case it's just another obstacle to overcome! Should she wind up losing control, I'll be there to help her control it!"

Zero looks at X and asks with a concrned face, "But what if the only way to do that is by shooting her? If she has to be taken out in order for the loss of control to stop, will you have the power to do it?"

X is unsure how to respond and instead starts to think about that outcome.

Shinja breaks the silence, "In that case, should that ever happen and I can't regain control of myself, you two have all the right in the world to take me out."

"What? Shinja, you don't mean that!" X says.

Shinja grows a serious look on her face while responding, "Ekkusu-kun, I'd rather die by your or Zero's hands than by a Maverick's. I'll be able to keep my dignity that way."

"Brave words coming from someone who can't stand lightning. I do advise that you come here for check-ups every two months, or whenever you've strained yourself. Your system right now is strong enough to keep it in check, but any weakness in your system could result in triggering the virus." Lifesavor insists before openin the door, "Remember, what was spoken here stays between us. I don't want Signas to know just yet, in case he labels her a Maverick."

Lifesavor leaves the room. Zero's memories of Iris quickly flash before him and it starts to bug him; he ends up leaving the room. X and Shinja watch, knowing what's going on.

"Shinja-chan...I don't want to be the one to take your life should the virus become triggered..." X says turning to her.

"Ekkusu-kun, we'll talk about that if it happens. For now, let's focus on figuring out how to make me stronger so it doesn't happen." Shinja says jumping down from the table.

Night quickly approaches. Isoc has passed out from exhaustion and High Max is the one to carry him to his room and place him in his Recharge Bed. High Max returns to Isoc's lab to cover up Sigma. Gate has tired himself out as well and heads for Shinja's room, currently sleeping on the bottom bunk like he used to to. Dynamo visits the lab where Shinja's reploid body was stored and looks at the files and recordings of her construction.

As for the Maverick Hunters, Shinja is fast asleep while X lies wide awake, wondering why Zero hasn't shown up. Zero is in fact on the rooftop thinking about Shinja's new situation, and how bravely she announced that she'd want to have either him or X take her life should she lose total control. This makes him think of his battle with Iris, how she blindly fought Zero after she learned her brother, Colonel, fought and died at the hands of Zero, despite her cries for them not to fight each other. He never had any intention of taking Colonel's life; it just ended up hapening that way. He never thought he'd take Iris's life either, but as cruel fate would have it, he was too strong for her. And now this.

"{Damn it Shinja...the last thing I want to do is take another innocent person's life! There's gotta be a way to prevent it somehow...}"

He punches the ground trying hard to think of a way she can use the virus's influence to her advantage. He then gets an idea.

"Wait...Rakuhouha...it's the strongest attack she can learn! What if there's a way to channel energy like that into an attack? Hmm...it's a long shot, but it might work. {The only problem is, will she recognize us as a friend by then, or will she destroy anything that moves?}"

* * *

><p><strong>Trivia:<br>**1) Gate saying that Metal Shark Player's weapon could come in handy for the Maverick Hunters is true; both X and Zero's learned attack from Player end up using anchors. While X's Metal Anchor shoots anchors at foes, Zero's Rakukoujin explodes into several anchors upon impact.  
>2) Mijinion calling Sigma a "zombie" isn't far from the truth. When Sigma is encountered by the end of the game, his first form instead appears and even walks almost like a zombie. His semi-conscious state also makes him more "zombie-like", especially when he speaks.<br>3) Shinja tripping while dashing wouldn't be uncommon as the way X and Zero dash includes most of the body being foward and the toes being pointed at the ground. Her slamming into is a part of her learning to stop the dash, and is a joke from one of Zero's attacks; it can't be canceled in order to break a player's fall.  
>4) The weapon Zero is thinking about is NOT the Shield Boomerang from the <em>Zero series<em> despite his knowledge of the game.  
>5) Isoc wanting to speak with Sigma would be similar as to how Dr. Light spoke X in <em>The Day of Sigma<em>; his need for a generator stems from the fact that Sigma is left in a very weakened state by the X6 game.  
>6) High Max makes a very crude joke about placing the Nightmare Cannon "anywhere" on Sigma's body. This wouldn't be an uncommon thing to see as other characters from other animecartoons have weapons placed in very strange parts of the body. In _Sonic the Movie_, Dr. Robotnik (aka Dr. Eggman) has an weapon that shoots out a sticking substance placed within his robot's behind. _Sonic the Movie_ is a one-hour long film that was not in theaters and is on DVD.  
>7) Gate's discovery of the Maverick Virus being present in Zero's DNA wouldn't be far from the truth; Zero is the original carrier of the Maverick Virus as in an X4 cutscene, it is seen where and how it passed onto Sigma and becomes the Sigma Virus. The fact that Zero can be "awakened" in X5 if the shuttle is not successful proves that the virus is still in his system by that point; after the events from X5, Zero never has another chance to go Maverick by any means (correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't played X5 since I beat it; I despise the ending of Zero dying).<br>8) Zero discovers a verbal command was placed within Shinja's buster as a safety feature; the fact that the command to turn the safety off is Japanese is relative to the fact that all (if not most depending on the game) of Zero's attack names are all in Japanese, and the fact that Shinja's new armor is still based off Zero's; one exception to this rule is "Dark Hold".  
>9) I had "Sick Bay" and "Infirmary" differ slightly because I didn't want "Sick Bay" to be constantly used. The fact that they're in different sectors is because the "Infirmary" is meant to be more "private" for Reploids that are having smaller issues such as X listed.<br>10) Lifesavor gives more details of what can happen to Shinja should the benign Maverick Virus become triggered. Even he chooses to keep it a secret from Signas.  
>11) Shinja calls X "Ekkusu-kun". This would be similar to X calling her "Shinja-chan" as he sees her as a sister. "Ekkusu" is also "X" in Japanese, for those that may not know. Shinja uses this nickname to get through to X that she'd rather be killed by him or Zero so she can keep her dignity upon death.<br>12) Zero's memories of Iris and Colonel haunt him after learning Shinja's situation and hearing her words. Although he doesn't have a romantic relationship with Shinja, he doesn't want to kill her should that moment arise; it remind him too much of Iris.  
>13) Zero thinks of Shinja using Rekuhouha (the Giga Attack from X4) as a failsafe for her losing control could reverse the effects of the virus, as it would be giving her more power she might not be able to handle. Rekukouha is nothing more than Zero's strongest attack, and the viru could provide Shinja with enough power to use it. However, by that point would she see Zero and X as friends or damage them? As of now, it is unknown.<p> 


	7. Giga Disaster

Character Thoughts: "{abc}"  
>Translated Speech: "<em>abc<em>"

Chapter 7:  
>Giga Disaster<p>

It's not even four in the morning yet. The emergency alarm goes off, scaring Shinja out of bed and waking up X and Zero. They rise groggy and wondering what's going on and Shinja asks them how they're able to take it like an alarm clock.

Alia can be heard, "X! Zero! Shinja! There's an emergency at the Weapon Center! Please report to the Navigation Room immediatly!"

Shinja asks, "The Weapon Center?"

"I better get my Falcon Armor together then." X says standing up.

"I'll be in the Navigation Room then." Zero says before looking at Shinja, "C'mon Shinja, let's get going."

"..." Shinja is silent, but agrees to follow by standing up and following Zero out of the room.

X climbs into his Armor Change Station, turning around to face the room. Barrier pillars rise from the corners of the station and barrier walls surround X. His armor begins to glow and is soon exchanged with the Falcon Armor. The barrier retracts as well as the pillars and X rushes out of the room to the Navigation Room. Once there, Signas gives them the information Alia has gathered. Apparently the Nightmare has begun infecting the area and some Reploids have become trapped, the security systems having locked everything. Alia has punched in the cooridinates for the Teleportation Pod and tells the three to head there. X and Zero are first out the door and Shinja is last, simply walking out the door. She hasn't forgotten who killed her. The fact that she has to go to the place where Mijinion is sends chills up her spine. She finally reaches the Teleportation Pod and X helps her up. It activates on Alia's commands, and the three of them are sent away.

Arriving at the Weapon Center seconds later, they get to see just how large the place is first hand. X is used to see large fortresses as Zero walks over to the doors. Shinja can only look up, replaying how Illumina crushed her with pure ease. She shakes her head, eyes closed, trying to shake off the image. She quickly finds she can't stop replaying that moment in her head, and grabs onto her head, now beginning to shake. Zero finds that the security to the facility is indeed strong, but he's able to unlock the door by imputting the code that only the Reploids know in case they needed to get in for any reason. Both X and Zero find this to be strange.

Before X joins Zero to head inside, Shinja shouts, her fear taking over, "It's a trap! It's a trap!"

"Huh? Shinja, what do you mean?" X asks.

That's when X could see the fear in Shinja's eyes. He quickly remembers that Mijinion is the one that killed her human body. Zero can see how scared she is but isn't exactly sure what to say or do to get her to follow them inside. He knows letting her stay out here is a bad idea as she can easily be attacked, and she'll miss out on experience. Shinja shuts her eyes tight shaking like a leaf. X walks over to her and puts his hand on her shoulder. It quickly catches her attention as she looks up at him, still holding onto the protrusions on her helmet. He looks at her with a gentle expression.

"Shinja-chan, you don't need to be afraid. We're not gonna let anything happen to you." X says, even his voice sounding gentle.

"But what if Mijinion's planning a trap? I know how he works!" Shinja argues, releasing her helmet.

"Well then that's a good thing." Zero says walking over, "That'll help us to plan a battle strategy and take him down much quicker."

X agrees, "The faster he's brought down, the better."

Shinja tries to say, "But...I can sense Illumina...it's unreal!"

"You're a Reploid now." X says, "You're going to be sensing a lot of new things, including enemies like Illumina. The one thing I hope you never sense is Sigma."

"Oh please, X, I doubt she'll ever see Sigma again. I took care of him a while ago; there's no way he's coming back." Zero says sounding confident.

"That's what you said the last time." X glares, referencing when Sigma reappeared several months later.

Shinja asks, "If I follow, and it does turn out to be a trap, then can I slap the both of you?"

X laughs and replies, "You can slap Zero."

Zero yells, "Hey c'mon, you're the master of falling into traps!"

X argues, "Only because back then I took care of the hard stuff while you were off doing something else!"

Zero defends, "I was _taking care_ of the _harder_ stuff! Do you have any idea how hard it was back then to track down both Sigma AND Vile?"

Shinja says getting slightly annoyed, "Can we hurry this mission up so I can curl up into a ball and hide when we get back?"

With that, the Hunters stop their arguing and the three of them head inside. What they entered was a small hallway ending at a single elevator. They enter the elevator and it instantly takes them to the lowest basement floor. Once they step out, the room suddenly goes dark, and then the room lights up revealing Illumina and Infinity Mijinion. Shinja's eyes shrink to the point they're no bigger than a marble and she quickly hides behind X. The Hunters glare over at the water flea as he looks back at them.

"So then, we finally get to meet the insect who forced Shinja into her new body. You know, although she was lucky enough to survive, you'll be lucky if I don't give you 1,000 years of pain." Zero says.

"Why Mijinion? Why take the life of an innocent girl?" X asks.

Mijinion replies, "You really want to know why? Gate showed her more attention over me. Those two became nearly inseperable."

Zero says, "So you killed her out of jealousy. How typical."

X says, "This time, we'll be taking _your_ like, and you won't be coming back."

"That's if you can get passed my sweet Illumina first. I doubt you will though; I've equipped her with so much more. Good luck, Maverick Hunters." Mijinion says before turning into liquid globs and leaving the room.

Illumina looks down at its targets, already having noticed that its main target, Shinja, is in the room. Shinja looks around knowing the Reploid's weakpoints from the game, but can't see the cables anywhere. Illumina begins its attack by stomping the ground, small laser guns protruding from the walls. They start to randomly fire off at the Hunters, forcing them to scramble. Shinja comes close to getting hit on multiple occasions as she runs, dashes slamming into the floor, jumps, and ducks in order to avoid being hit. X and Zero use their respective weapons to reflect the lasers. Ilumina wastes no time in attacking them itself by shooting yellow energy balls from its eyes, all three of them able to avoid most of it.

As the battle takes place, a hidden camera placed in the ceiling catches all the action. The camera is actually sending the images to Gate's lab; they had been installed by Ground Scaravich during the time Shinja was unconscious. Scaravich was watching closely and quickly sends a metallic gnat to relay the info to Gate. The gnat flies quickly through the halls of the lab, finding Gate in his room, armor off. He is polishing his armor after becoming annoyed with its lack of luster when the gnat flies in his face. Gate glares at the frustrating insect, and it tells him of what is taking place at the Weapon Center. With no time to place his armor back on, he grabs his lab coat, closes it up, and follows the gnat out of his room and to the security room.

There, Scaravich was watching becoming tense wantin Shinja to attack Illumina, but she had been hit several times by now, and so had X and Zero. Gate enters the room with the gnat and is quickly drawn to the screen. He is not only shocked but is also surprised that Shinja is in a different armor. They both watch as Illumina picks up its attack speed and goes after the Hunters relentlessly. Scaravich says he has yet to spot where Illumina's weakpoint is, as it's normally seen attached to two long cables. Gate quickly grabs onto the gnat finding a transmitter in it and contacts Dynamo, telling him what's happening. Dynamo wastes no time in ending the transmission so he can rush to the Weapon Center.

In the Weapon Center, the Hunters are quickly starting to lose the fight, having no luck in damaging the large golem. Shinja is becoming quickly exhuasted from running around trying to dodge as many attacks as possible. The laser guns in the walls retracted after a while, but Illumina wasn't finished. It detaches its head from its body and three aiming lasers from its eyes instantly target the three of them. Nine Hover Gunners fly out of Illumina's body and three each surround the Reploids. The Hover Gunners fire, shooting the three of them dealing even more damage. Nearly fried to the core, X and Zero try to hang on not wanting to give up just yet. However, Shinja was not doing so well. She was face down and not responding to their calls. Illumina's head reattaches itself, and it takes a couple steps over to Shinja. When X and Zero try to move, the Hover Gunners fired at them.

Ilumina bends down and grabs hold of Shinja, picking her up with one hand. The large golem-like Reploid looks at Shinja wondering why she isn't moving. It doesn't seem to really care as it begins to slowly squeeze her. Before it squeezed her too much, the doors to the elevator are blown off and energy pillars quickly rain upward, managing to scrape through Illumina's nearly invincible armor. It lets go of Shinja to which Dynamo jumps out of the elevator and catches her. He lands on the ground as Illumina is stunned, making the Hover Gunners become paralyzed and collapse. X and Zero can now stand and Dynamo hurries over with a very limp Shinja.

Before either of them could speak, the large golem-like Reploid snaps out from being stunned and sees Dynamo. It quickly becomes enraged and has the wall lasers re-emerge as well as detaching its head once more, a new weapon coming out of its body. It looks strikingly similar to the beam cannon that Web Spider guarded in the jungle. It begins to charge and when X moves, Illumina fires, striking down the blue bomber. Zero shouts X's name, but has choice but to dodge the Hover Gunners' next attack, only to be hit by four wall lasers. Dynamo moves quick, trying to avoid being hit now that he's carrying Shinja. Illumina charges the cannon again as Zero tries to get up. Out of Illumina's sight, Dynamo slashes at a few wall lasers, destroying them, and then puches the wall, causing part of it to collapse. He places Shinja inside the hole and hurries back to the Hunters.

Zero gets up and Illumina fires, only for the beam to be blocked by Dynamo using his energy pillars. Dynamo hurries to Zero and helps him up in time to dodge the Hover Gunners. While making their way to X, Illumina charges again. They reach X who is able to climb out of the wall; he has suffered severe damage and a wing falls off his armor. Dynamo then tells them that Illumina's weakness is somewhere in its back, which explains why it became enraged after its armor became scraped by his attack. Hearing this, Shinja wakes up, knowing that her playing possom worked; she figured that since Illumina has become more of a security-type for the Weapon Center, that it won't continue to hit targets that are unable to move. The drawback is that Illumina can move to crushing them with its bare hands, and if they're still alive they're ultimately crushed to death.

Shinja moves out of the hole and while stil out of the golem's sight, rushes over to its leg and wall kicks her way up quickly making her way onto its back. Illumina fires the cannon again, this time making sure the Reploids stay in place by having the Hover Gunners fire a second sooner. All three fall and Illumina only charges again. Dynamo struggles to get up seeing a Hover Gunner staring him in the eyes. He quickly uses his energy pillars again, this time striking the Gunners and Illumina, placing more scrapes in its armor and causing it to become stunned once again. Shinja hung on tight by sticking her saber into a scrape made by the first attack. She looks at the golem's back and finally sees its weakpoint; a wireless receiver surrounded by vital cables. She climbs up using her saber and reaches the receiver. Illumina snaps out of it again, becoming more enraged knowing its weakpoint has been revealed. A smaller beam cannon protrudes from the bottom of its free-floating head.

X tries to raise his buster at its head, and charges his next shot. The head cannon fires and X is able to cancel it out with his charge shot. All too soon, the body starts to react, reaching for its back. The head is unable to make sense of what is happening and as the body struggles it turns around, revealing Shinja is slashing at the weakpoint. She quickly uses Raijingeki and stabs the receiver. The receiver explodes with smoke as she slashes at the vital cables, finishing it off. The head is first to fall, the cannon being damaged upon impact with the ground. The body collapses next, one arm falling off, then another, the the legs giving way, and the body falls foward, Shinja hanging on. As soon as the body hits the ground, Shinja bounces off it, bounces off the ground and lands on her behind completely dizzy.

The guys are elated and relieved to see her. She shakes off her dizziness before standing up and looking over at the guys. She runs over to them, only to be glomped by Dynamo, then lifted back up by him. Zero and X help each other up and walk over to them. In the security room in Gate's Lab, Gate and Scaravich cheer on Shinja unable to believe what just occured. Gate now knows it was a good idea to give her part of Zero's DNA. Back in the basement room, Illumina continues to completely fall apart, a lot of the connections giving way.

Dynamo says full of excitement, "I can't believe you took down Illumina! You're such a sneaky little thing!"

Shinja grabs and yanks his hair, causing him to let go of her and she says, "I knew playing possom would work, and that Geito-kun would send you."

"How'd you know that?" Dynamo asks.

"At one point, I spotted a the hidden camera placed in the ceiling. I knew Geito-kun was watching; he was always finding ways to make sure I was safe, even while I was unconscious for a month." she answers.

"I can't believe you pulled such a trick. 'Playing possom'? You had us fooled!" Zero says.

Shinja responds, "I learned to do that when Wolfang and I were playing rough one day. He accidentally hit me too hard, so I tricked him by playing possom. Of course, Geito-kun wasn't too happy I did that."

X says, "As long as you don't pull that at the base during training. Anyway, great work, Shinja. You took down you're killer."

"Not entirely. Mijinion created Illumina, so that thing was only part one. As soon as that stupid flea is taken care of, I will have gotten my vengeance." Shinja replies.

"Then let's get moving. The quicker we take him out, the faster we can get repaired." Zero says.

They soon hear Mijinion's voice, "**Graaaaagggghhhhh!** You took down my sweet Illumina!" He quickly appears and continues, "Argh, I knew that bitch was nothing but trouble! Why didn't you just up and die?"

"Because you prick, I want my vengeance, and I'm not about to leave this world just yet! I'm taking you out whether you like it or not!" Shinja yells.

"In that case let's dance! I'll finish you off myself!" Mijinion shouts.

Mijinion begins the battle by making up to three other clones. While he attacks Shinja directly, the clones attack the guys. Shinja slashes at Mijinion but find that it isn't doing very much damage. She then thinks back to the game, experimenting in her battle using Zero's Buster, as it did even more damage. She quickly says the command, and the safety on her buster is turned off. Her arm transforms and she shoves it in his face, firing a half-charge shot. Mijinion goes flying into a wall, destroying some lasers in the process. The clones disappear as the water flea tries to stand. Shinja dashes over to Mijinion and this time keps herself from tripping, stopping right in front of Mijinion, buster pointed and fully charged. Dynamo, X, and Zero rush over and quickly point their busters a the flea.

Mijinion sees he's completely cornered and has no way out. X and Zero begin to charge their busters, and all four fire their shots at him. Mijinion is now scorched, smoke rising from his body as he lies on his back. He's close to death as Shinja takes aim yet again, charging up her buster. He looks at her and she glares back at him.

He then asks, "Why? Why was I ignored?"

A voice speaks, "Because when I first created you, I couldn't control you."

The Hunters look behind them and see Gate, having arrived by teleporting. He walks over and sees that Shinja is focused on finishing Mijinion off. When Gate gets close, he places his hand on her buster, getting her attention.

She backs down saying, "Cancel Fire." then looks at Mijinion, "Perhaps you dying slowly from the attacks will suffice."

Mijinion asks, "What do you mean?"

Gate replies, "You were always focused on creating Illumina that you forgot what I created you for. Not to mention you'd take to the offensive whenever someone wanted to enter this place. You caused your own downfall. You were impatient and arrogant towards others, even after I brought you back. This time, I won't make that mistake again."

"But, why didn't you just let the human die?" Mijinion asks, pressing the matter.

"Because, she became my friend. She saw the good I was trying to do compared to those other bastards. She got me to see that seeking revenge wasn't the way to solve anything, and now look; I'm practically working with the Maverick Hunters. If it wasn't for Shinja, I would've lost my sanity completely. You never saw that. You only saw her as a new kitten receiving all the attention, and you were the grown cat that wanted her gone." Gate answers.

"Kinda like that episode of Tom and Jerry." Dynamo says.

Shinja yanks his hair again for saying something irrelevant.

X says, "You know Infinity Mijinion, if you weren't such an arrogant person, you could've started working for us, designing new weapons to use against Mavericks. But instead, you take the wrong path, and now look at you."

Mijinion says after a moan, "Damn it! All I wanted was for Illumina to be the best weapon...I completely failed..."

Just then, his eyes darken, as well as the photoconductive material he's made of. From the material appears two new Special Weapin Chips for X and Zero to use. Gate takes them out and hands them to the Hunters.

Gate says, "Zero, she has your old techniques; make sure she learns the corresponding attack, okay?"

"No problem." Zero agrees.

"Hey, we still need to get the other Reploids outta here, right? We should hurry." Shinja says.

"Oh crap, she's right. At least now the worst part's over." Zero says.

"It'll be nice to not fight anymore..." X says.

Before they leaves, Shinja quickly hugs Geito-kun before rushing off with X and Zero. Dynamo joins Gate as they watch her get into the elevator with th Hunters, getting it to work after he blew the doors off. Dynamo fells his hair quickly finding that Shinja's yanking caused massive tangles.

"She's finally becoming a Reploid." Gate says feeling proud.

"Yeah, she's made amazing progress. And you thought you made a mistake." Dynamo says.

"At least I know she's becoming stronger. She even faced her fear. She'll make a great Hunter."

"She's on her way."

Shinja, Zero, and X explore the other 10 floors and manage to rescue the Reploids that became trapped. They soon teleport back to base after the mission is complete. All three are taken to Douglas for repairs, X having to leave his Falcon Armor behind. Signas appears before them as the repairs are being made and is proud of the results that the rescued Reploids escaped unharmmed. Shinja throws a small bolt at him knocking off his hat saying how great it would've been if she and the Hunters weren't horribly damaged. Signas laugh and shares him sympathy with them, amazed at what Mijinion had been doing.

In Isoc's lab, he has received word from High Max that Mijinion has been taken down Isoc doesn't become angered as he begins to form a new plan to take down the Hunters and Shinja. He looks at Sigma who has yet to respond to the newly hooked up generator, knowing that if all things fail, Sigma will take care of everything.

Back at Maverick Hunter HQ, Shinja is back in her Dedication Armor for the time being while Zero and X are given red and blue coats to wear, respectively. Zero has to teach Shinja how to use Rakuhouha as the Special Weapon Chips he and X receive give them Rekkouha and Ray Arrow, respectively. He teaches her hat in order to use it, she has to focus her energy to her hand alone, not her buster, and slam it into the ground. She does as told, focusing her energy into her hand making a fist. As she punches the ground, the energy she had gathered wasn't prepared well and explodes knocking her back. Zero rushes to her and finds that she is knocked out cold. He sighs heavily knowing that getting her to master this will be even more painful then having to teach her to dash.

* * *

><p><strong>Trivia:<br>**1) Zero and X take the emergency alarm like an alarm clock; they've adjusted to this after years of hearing it.  
>2) Shinja flipping out before entering the Weapon Center is understandable; she was killed by Mijinion's Illumina.<br>3) X and Zero arguing over how X took care of the hard stuff while Zero was elsewhere if a reference to the manga; X always fell into traps while Zero was doing his own missions.  
>4) Zero threatens Mijinion about giving him "1000 years of pain"; this is the name of Kakashi Hatake's Jutsu.<br>5) In the normal stage, the player is constantly dodging Illumina's attacks on top of trying to fight through two other enemies and making sure they don't jump down and endless pit. Illumina's increasing attack here reflects its constant attacking until the second cable is destroyed.  
>6) Interestingly, Illumina's known weakpoints don't exist. This is due to Mijinion having another month to improve his creation and make it virtually invincible. The new weakpoint is a wireless receiver and the vital cables surrounding it in its back.<br>7) The "wall lasers" are reference to the lasers that appear at the second cable that the player must destroy part of if they plan on taking out the large Reploid.  
>8) The Hover Gunners actually do appear from Illumina's body. If you watch closely in any video, you will see them pop out as soon as Ilumina detaches its head.<br>9) Shinja "plays possom" in order to avoid any more damage. However, this almost backfires as Illumina's countermeasure is to squeeze the target to death.  
>10) Dynamo's energy pillars are able to tear away Illumina's armor, but doesn't damage it leaving it stunned. This stunned state is a trait shared with High Max; depending on who the player chooses, High Max can be stunned by X's Charged Shot followed by Special Attacks, or Zero's Shouenzan followed by regular saber attacks.<br>11) Shinja wall kicking to climb Illumina wouldn't be unheard of. Depending on the mini/boss, the player can wall kick the enemy to hit the weak point. General is a good example as you can wall kick his hands while they fly through the air.  
>12) Mijinion's attack patterns are unpredictable, but here he is seen as rather weak. When fighting as Zero, he takes more damage from the Z-Buster than the saber. Since Shinja's armor is still based off Zero, and Zero is also there, both having their busters charged would only deal more damage. X and Dynamo add into the equation, helping to really deal the fatal blow.<br>13) Gate appears only briefly to tell Mijinjion why he was defeated.  
>14) The Special Weapon Chips were located within Mijinion's photoconductive body, since it makes up most of his body.<br>15) Zero and X having to wear coats in place of their armor DOES NOT HINT that Reploids can become nude. It's just to cover up what they look like underneath.  
>16) Shinja being knocked out by learning Rakuhouha is due to the energy not being charged properly.<p> 


	8. Taking Control

Character Thoughts: "{abc}"  
>Translated Speech: "<em>abc<em>"

Chapter 8:  
>Taking Control<p>

High Max enters Isoc's lab with the body of Infinity Mijinion. He places the exterminated flea on a table that has been prepared. Isoc walks away from Sigma and over to Mijinion; his photoconductive body no longer bright as it once was. High Max backs away as Isoc quickly gets to work disecting the flea's body for parts he can use for Sigma, and he walks over to said Maverick. He sees that Sigma's body is only half way rebuilt, wires and cables lying carelessly in the capsule. The generator he brought in is hooked up but Sigma has yet to fully respond to it, suggesting the generator may not have the energy required to wake him up so they may speak with him. Suddenly, Isoc pushes High Max out of the way carrying the lifeless Mijinion with a hose hooked up to his body. He opens a lid to an energy tank within then capsule, hooks the hose up to it, and has the photoconductive liquid drain from Mijinion's body into the tank.

The mad scientist explains as the liquid drains that the tank inside the capsule was empty and he never noticed. With Mijinion's liquid body now being used as a kind of fuel, Sigma can be awakened for only a few minutes at a time, enough to converse with the Maverick. Also, Mijinion's liquid body can also regenerate itself as the flea can use an infinite amount of bubbles to attack. The liquid will most likely never run out. Within seconds, all of the liquid is emptied into the tank. Isoc unhooks the hose and tosses Mijinion's body aside no longer having a use for it. Soon the liquid begins to light up as the tank begins to slowly pump it into Sigma's body. As Isoc watches with excitement, High Max backs off as if afraid of what might happen. That's when Sigma wakes up, now reactivated after over a month of inactivity.

Sigma looks around, his vision blurry from the start. After a few minutes, the blurriness clears up and he can see Isoc and High Max. He tries to move his arms but finds he's curently too weak to be moving. He looks over at Isoc.

Sigma asks, "Who are you and where am I?"

Isoc answers, "My name is Isoc. I'm currently trying to rebuild you. You are in my laboratory. Next to me is High Max."

"You seem familiar, Isoc. Are you sure you're not Wily himself?" Sigma asks.

While the two converse with Isoc claiming he isn't Wily, High Max tries to retreat from the lab with Mijinion's body. He can sense a lot of power from Sigma even though he's been half rebuilt. He manages to get just outside the door and listens closely to their conversation.

Isoc says, "Anyway Sigma, I'm hoping you'll be willing to be the last resort in my plan to rid this world of X and Zero, and their new friend, Shinja."

"A last resort? Hmm, considering my condition I'd have to be. I'd love to take them out now though." Sigma says, calculating his thoughts.

"I'd also like you to take out Gate and that pesky Dynamo as well."

"Who are they: Gate and Shinja? I remember Dynamo from the Eurasia Incident."

"Gate is a scientist like myself who constructed High Max. He's also responsible for making a Reploid body for Shinja. Shinja used to be a human teenage girl, but Mijinion killed her...or so I thought. Her soul now inhabits her Reploid body while her human body has been buried near the crash site, where Gate found her."

"Let me guess: Shinja's being trained by the Hunters, right? I could've sworn I killed Zero."

"He's alive. And yes, how did you know that?"

"I may not have been responsive, but I've been able to listen to most of your conversations. You can't stand this Gate because Shinja was the one who helped analyze Zero's DNA, along with the fact the two got along perfectly, correct?"

"Y...yes, that's correct. Wow, you are quite an amazing Maverick."

"Feh, her relationship with Gate reminds me when she befriended a spy of mine."

"...She befriended a Maverick?"

"...He wasn't one after she came into his life."

A voice emits, "My God, Shinja's a whore!"

Sigma and Isoc look around and the voice shouts, "IN THE TANK YOU BASTARDS!"

Isoc looks at the tank and sees a pair of eyes and a mouth, similar to _Calcifer_ from _Howl's Moving Castle_. Mijinion had actually survived his ordeal and has come back as the liquid he is made of. Both Sigma and Isoc are impressed he had survived his battle.

"Well, well, Infinity Mijinion. Gate built you well." Isoc says.

"Screw that! Why am I being used as fuel for this zomie?" Mijinion yells.

"I want to be able to eat brains." Sigma jokes.

"Okay, that isn't funny." Mijinion says, "So, she got along with this spy of yours?"

Sigma replies, "Yup. It was after some moron human opened a rift in the Bermuda Triangle..."

Several months before the Eurasia Incident, and at the start of the Bermuda Rift Accident, Shinja was running away from a large Giga Death Mechaniloid that had been fitted with a propeltion system. She trips over a rise in the road and falls onto her stomach. She turns over looking at the large Mechaniloid as it closes in preparing its missles. All of a sudden something whizzes by slicing it in two and it collapses. Shinja can't believe she has been saved and looks around soon spotting her savior. As her savior walks over she soon realizes it's a Maverick: it is Double in his true form. He kneels down and sees she has a nasty scrape on her knee, bleeding heavily.

"Are you okay?" Double asks.

"Why did you of all Reploids save me? Aren't you a Maverick?" Shinja flips.

"Shh! Do you want the others to find out? Last thing I need is for my identity to be revealed early."

"Like you deserve to hide. I've played the damn game a million times; you turn on X at the last minute!"

"...Oh crap."

"Yeah, 'oh crap' is right. The second X and Zero explore the internet and find out, they're gonna dispose of you!"

"Argh, you humans are so annoying! Look, they have no idea where I've even wound up. As far as everyone's concerned, I probably ended up in a ditch somewhere and can't get out. Don't forget what my chubby form is like."

"Well you're definetly still an idiot in this form."

"Bitch."

"Jello Prick."

"I could kill you for that."

"Go ahead; I got nothing to lose."

"...Nothing to lose?"

The memory Sigma has of it stops. His body is unable to stay awake any longer and it shuts down for the time being. Isoc is surprised that Shinja had started befriended an enemy right away. Mijinion stops filtering through his new liquid body into Sigma as the tank itself has stopped, allowing him to regenerate himself. Little did they know that High Max had been listening to all of it. He rushes away taking to the air now in search of Gate.

As High Max rushes through each hallway and corridor in order to find Gate, at Maverick Hunter HQ, Shinja has recovered from her failed Giga Attack. She sits up in her Recharge Bed finding the room is empty. Timcanpy displays an "LOL" before Shinja smacks him into the ground, causing him to bounce before he lays there dizzy. She quickly notices that she is in her Light Armor (her new armor), as Douglas has called it, stands up and looks at the Armor Change Stations. Zero's is still inactive but X's now contains his Falcon Armor all fixed. Timcanpy recovers and flies up onto Shinja's head. Shinja soon sees a note on the end table and walks over to it. She picks it up seeing her name written on it. She opns it and it reads:

_Shinja-chan,  
>Just to let you in, I have talked to Douglas about your failed Giga Attack after Zero told me. It turns out you're actually missing a vital part in order to use it in the first place. Douglas contacted Gate about it, but for some reason the tansmission never got through. Until we get a hold of him, don't try using the Giga Attack for a while. The next one could fry your systems and you'll be out for another month in the worst case; best case you'll be out for a week, maybe two.<br>Also, when you get this, Signas would like to speak with you about something. I couldn't get him to tell me what, but it sounds like it could be something good; maybe he has a special mission just for you. Zero and I will be training in the Holographic Chambers in case you want to look for us. We're trying to see which one of us can defeat Illumina the quickest...he'll win, of course. You're welcome to train any time you want.  
>Signed,<br>X_

"{Signas wants to talk to me? I hope he didn't find out I'm carrying a benign part of the Maverick Virus...}"

Shinja places the note on her bed and leaves the room. She rushes through the halls to the Navigation Room, but only sees Alia and other Navigation Reploids; some looked to be the ones that were rescued from the Weapon Center. She walks in and heads over to Alia. Alia notices her and turns to her.

"Hey there Shinja. You feeling okay?" Alia asks.

"Yeah, I'll live. Where's Signas? X said he wanted to talk to me." Shinja replies.

A Reploid responds, "Signas is busy speaking with the other Reploids you and the guys rescued from your last mission. He could be a while."

Timcanpy says, "That's just great."

Alia says, "Don't worry, he gave me info on the mission he wants you to do."

"He's letting me handle a mission? By myself?" Shinja asks.

"Yup. After the report he received from X, he was very pleased with the results. He's impressed with how you handled Illumina and even took down Infinity Mijinion. He feels you'll be able to handle this small one now that he knows how you battle." Alia replies.

"...I hope I'm ready for this." Shinja says, a bit worried.

Alia says, "You'll be fine. It's not like you'll be taking on Zero Nightmare or another Investigator. Your mission is to simply explore a section of the Eurasia Crash Site that the other Reploids here haven't been able to reach. You yourself are tiny and your thin armor makes you an even better candidate than X for this. In that section could be what is sending this odd signal."

Shinja looks at the screen seeing the signal's impulse waves. She says, "That is an odd signal. Okay, I'll go check it out. I'll get Magenta!"

"The coordinates have been downloaded into her GPS; you're all set to go." a Reploid says.

With that, Shinja rushes out the room and heads for the garage, Timcanpy now having to take flight in order to keep up. As she rushes over, memories of an old friend start to flood her mind. She shakes it off for the time being and makes it to the garage where Megenta is raring to go. Shinja hops on her Ride Chaser with Timcanpy attaching himself to Shinja's back and off they go from HQ. As soon as they are only a few miles away, another Ride Chaser can be seen; it's Dynamo again. Dynamo notices Shinja and the two close in on each other coming to a stop.

"Hey kid, where do you think you're going?" Dynamo asks.

"Signas gave me a small mission. Where are you going?" Shinja asks.

"To your base. Gate said that you guys tried to send a transmission signal, but it got jammed from the lab's end for some reason. So I'm going to the base personally to se what's up. Not to mention, I wanna bug the Hunters again." Dynamo replies, a conniving smirk growing on his face.

"I hope for your safety Zero doesn't punch your lights out. I know the transmission was about a vital part needed for me to use the Giga Attack."

"Oh is it? I thought Gate gave you everything you needed?"

"Guess not. I better hurry and complete the mission before I get in trouble."

"Hey I'll take the blame if that happens. You be careful."

"Same to you."

Both Reploids head off in their directions. Suddenly, more memories start to flood Shinja's mind, causing her to nearly swerve. Dynamo watches as she quickly recovers and keeps going. Although he thinks he should follow her from distance, he knows it could hinder her from completing the mission. Dynamo presses on towards the base.

A little while later, Shinja arrives at the crash site, seeing the unexplored part of it. It looked to be a dome, but it is really the top part containing large glass windows that has buried itself into the ground. Timcanpy comes to life as Shinja leaves Magenta behind quickly becoming her navigator. He had downloaded the info Magenta was given into his memory storage, and from Shinja's research already has information on the colony. However, that's all he has is data from when the colony was functional. Shinja looks around for an opening and finds a break in the window, just small enough for her to fit through. Looking at it, it was no more than three feet high and only three feet wide at best, too small for X to fit through. She gets down onto her hands and knees and carefuly crawls through.

Shinja gets inside with Timcanpy close behind. Dust an dirt fall from the top making the air quality poor for humans. Timcanpy flies to her side and using his radar to sense traps and enemies, tells her to go foward towards a doorway. She head towards it only to be ambushed by a Nightmare Virus. She takes out her saber and slashes it, the virus being destroyed and its soul being left behind. Shinja goes to touch the soul, but it instead is absorbed into Timcanpy. He coughs up smoke as a result and displays a thermometer. The virus left him feeling a tad sick, but he gets over it. Shinja crawls through the doorway soon coming upon a hole. Timcanpy flies down, and 20 seconds later flies back up, saying the hole leads somewhere.

With that in mind, Shinja jumps in and falls down the hole, landing on the ground below. Now it is dark and Shinja can't see. Timcanpy joins her, unable to see much himself. That's when Shinja remembered she put in a kind of flashlight in Timcanpy. She grabs him and presses a buton underneath his right wing. A light emerges from his head and turns on, lighting up the new corridor. Taking the lead, Timcanpy leads Shinja through the corridor, recording everything into his memory system. Memories again flood Shinja's mind causing her to fall to her knees gripping her head. This time she can't shake it off.

Back to the memory where Sigma left off, the arguement between her and Double ends when Sigma himself appears. He demands what Double is doing with Shinja, but the spy can't find an answer. To make him answer, Sigma grabs hold of Shinja by her neck, slowly beginning to choke her. Double, his conscience kicking in, slashes Sigma's leg without warning making him drop Shinja. Double catches her and dashes off, taking her far away from Sigma.

Minutes pass before he locates a closed thrift store. He finds a way in and sits Shinja down on a register counter and begins to look for first aid items. Double comes across some hydrogen peroxide, gause fabric wrap, and gause wrapping tape (not actual tape, the more foamy kind). He takes these over to Shinja as she pulls out a cloth from behind the counter, kept clean inside a plastic container. Shinja sees the supplies Double found and tries to convince him the scrape isn't that huge, but he tells her it's taking up her entire knee. Not wanting to feel the sting of the alcohol, she tries to get down, but Double doesn't let her and opens the bottle quickly pouring it on the wound. Shinja lets out a cry of pain as Double takes the cloth and dabs the wound, aplying pressure each time.

He pours the hydrogen peroxide on her wound a couple more times to make sure it is clean before applying the bandages. Once her wound is covered, he lets her down from the counter. She looks up at him confused and he looks down at her.

She asks again, "Why did you save me, Double? Aren't you supposed to be a Maverick?"

He replies unsure how to respond, "Look, I know I'm supposed to be on Sigma's side, but you saying you have nothing to lose instantly struck me as surprising. I know we Reploids have basically nothing to lose since we can't have kids or whatnot, so killing another Reploid is easy. I have yet to even attack the Maverick Hunters. You humans have everything to lose: blood relatives, kids, reputation, popularity, material possessions, job titles and positions...why do you say you have nothing? As cheesy as it sounds, it doesn't compute."

"I have no blood relatives, I'm too young to have kids, I have no reputation to uphold, no popular status, and no job. I had material possessions, but the Mechaniloids destroyed those. So I have nothing to lose but my life. Me saying that wasn't meant to be a reverse psychological thing; it's the truth. You wanna take me hostage? Go ahead. Kill me? Have at it. It's your choice, not mine."

"...What? I thought you humans were supposed to be close, peaceful beings! Did the Mechaniloids kill your relatives?"

"Nope: Slash Beast. I'm glad he did, they never gave me the comfort I sought. We never spoke to the rest of my family because of the shit they put my parents through. Heheh, Slash Beast is a funny character. Do you know what he said to me after he killed my parents?"

"What did he say?"

"He said this and I quote, 'Keh, pathetic little human, if you wish to try and kill me, hate me, detest me. And yet I'm letting you survive in an unsightly way. Run, run and cling to life, and when you've found a way to kill me, come to me.' Hahahaha, he practically copied a line from the anime _Naruto_! Is that guy for real? I'f expect something like that from Magma Dragoon!"

"...That is rather pathetic. But you can't take him on."

"No, but you, X, and Zero can. Wait, what am I saying? Why the hell would you want to fight for me? You're practically a Maverick!"

"Not anymore."

"Huh?"

"I'm done with Sigma. Not to mention you know everything. And if other people have these games, then they know everything. It's pointless to even continue to be a spy for Sigma now. It was easier when no one could tell heads or tails of a situation. Screw this."

Double removes the communicator in his chest, throws it against the ground and crushes it with his foot. Shinja watches in awe as he now puts himself in even more danger by severing his ties with Sigma. He looks at her gaining her attention.

He says, "Call me a rogue Reploid."

Shinja's memories end there. She remembers Double well. She befriended him without meaning to. Timcanpy flies to her asking her if she's okay. She tells him she's okay, and the two continue their way through the corridor. This time, the tiny robotic golem senses another Nightmare Virus. Shinja treads lightly and it appears, firing small energy orbs at her. She dodges them and slashes it, Timcanpy absorbing another soul and coughing up smoke.

At Gate's lab, High Max, still carrying Mijinion's lifeless body, has found Gate in the security room trying to figure out how the last transmission from Maverick Hunter HQ was jammed. He enters the room and Gate quickly notices him quickly becoming concerned as to why Mijinion's body is no longer filled with photoconductive liquid. Gate becomes more concerned that High Max has a scared look on his face.

"High Max, what's going on?" Gate demands.

"Isoc...he's...he's bringing back Sigma! He plans on taking you out with him!" High Max answers out of breath.

"Nandato? How dare he try to overthrow me! I hold more power and intellect than he does!"

"Sigma's stronger than you. He may be weak now, but I'm sure he isn't defenseless. I sensed a lot of power coming from his half rebuilt body. I suggest you evacuate and head for the Hunter Base!"

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because...as much as I really despise Shinja, the last thing I want to happen is for her to find Isoc too soon and wind up dead after all you've done with her. And I know she wouldn't want to see you did after what happened with Zero Nightmare."

"...I'm surprised you have a heart. But, you are correct. I can't let myself get killed by Isoc or Sigma. But you'll have to help me escape. I'm not the battle type."

"Alright, I'll help you. But we need to move fast."

They leave the security room with High Max leaving Mijinion's body behind, but not before being found out by Shield Sheldon. He has heard everything, but wastes no time in wanting to help Gate escape; nothing will be able to pierce through his hard shell, and his Guard Shell move reflects attacks. The three rush through the halls trying to avoid anything that Isoc may have set up for his own security. At one point a security Mechaniloid passes by, causing Sheldon to quickly grab Gate and pull him inside his shell. Once the Mechaniloid is out of sight, Sheldon opens his shell with Gate spilling out. Gate looks at his creation, although proud that Sheldon hasn't failed to perform what he is made for, Gate hopes he doesn't do it so suddenly again.

High Max, Sheldon, and Gate eventually make it to a small garage near the surface from the underground lab where two more Ride Chasers are stored; a purple one that belongs to Gate, and a grey one that belongs to Isoc. Gate quickly mounts his Ride Chaser and High Max opens the door with Sheldon keeping watch. As soon as the door opens, Gate tells Sheldon to tell Wolfang that he is in charge of remaining operations. Sheldon agrees and Gate leaves his lab heading off towards Maverick Hunter HQ.

Back at the crash site, Shinja has made it to what used to be a control room for the colony. Timcanpy recognizes it as such and leads her through. They come upon a locked and damaged door, to which Shinja discovers that what ever is behind the door is sending out the strange signal. Expecting to find something scary, Shinja swallows her pride and takes out her saber. She slashes at the door, but finds it's useless. She tries Raijingeki, but it doesn't even fry the door. Shinja then speaks the command for her buster and charges it. She fires the charge shot and the door finally falls down, along with something else. Timcanpy approaches it and using his wings creates enough wind to blow off the dust and dirt.

Shinja backs away horrified at what Timcanpy has just revealed. She lets out a loud scream that Magenta can easily hear, but she can't get inside one way or the other. In fear she wants to send out a distress signal but stops herself as she doesnt want to compromise the mission. Instead, Shinja receives a transmission from Alia. Her buster opens up with an image of Alia being displayed with a worried expression.

Alia calls, "Shinja! Shinja, are you okay? Shinja, respond! Shinja!"

"...A...Alia..." Shinja tries to speak.

"What is it? Tell me, is something wrong?"

"E...Everything is fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah...I just ran into a spider is all."

"Phew...is that all? You're silly. Any surviving spider can't harm you now."

"I realize that. I'm ending the transmission."

"Okay. Haha, try not to scare me like that again."

Shinja ends the transmission, having succesfully lied about what she had really found. Timcanpy flies up to her, shining light on what fell after the door.

* * *

><p><strong>Trivia:<br>**1) Since Infinity Mijinion can create near infinite bubbles and near infinite clones in battle, he must be able to regenerate the liquid that makes up most of his body. This means he can survive as the liquid alone if he has enough will.  
>2) Sigma waking up to the photoconductive liquid proves it must contain the right kind of energy source to give life back to a fallen Reploid. He and Isoc are conversing like X and Dr. Light did in <em>The Day of Sigma<em>.  
>3) Shinja meeting Double wouldn't be out of the ordinary as the Bermuda Triangle Accident caused everything to scatter. The fact that Double is now "missing" supports this.<br>4) Shinja calls Double "Jello Prick". Although she's caling him a name, it isn't far from the fact that a gelatin-like substance makes up 50% of Double's body. Fans often call him "JelloMan" because of this.  
>5) Timcanpy's display of "LOL" is him laughing at Shinja due to her recent failure.<br>6) Apparently, Shinja is missing a vital part that will allow her to use the Giga Attack, despite the fact that Zero's DNA allows her to use his old attacks.  
>7) Dynamo saying he wants to bug Zero and X is a reference to X5; it's possible he misses fighting them.<br>8) It is revealed that Shinja placed data from when the Eurasia Colony was functional into Timcanpy. This is to utilize his Navigation Abilities.  
>9) Double saves Shinja because she sad that she has nothing to lose. It stops him from wanting to kill her altogether, and after learning what she no longer has and what she never had, he comes to a realization that killing her would do nothing. He also knows he's in trouble with Sigma after slashing his leg, so he severes his ties with the Maverick completely by crushing his communicator.<br>10) What Shinja said was not meant to be a reverse psychological thing. Double would've killed her even if it was, but something in him said it was wrong. It could also be due to the fact that our world has all the information on everything while their world has no information on the games.  
>11) Reverse Psychology is an odd phenomenon used mostly on kids when they are being unruly. This is seen in <em>Family Guy<em> when Lois tries to bathe Stewie, but he jumps in a mud puddle. She "gives up" saying "if you wanna be dirty, BE dirty." Stewie then goes "what the hell?" demanding to be clean. Shinja did not use this; she was merely stating a fact.  
>12) Double decides to become a rogue Reploid instead of returning to being a spy."<br>13) Slash Beast's line to Shinja is a line made famous by _Itachi Uchiha_ from the anime _Naruto_ after Sasuke has found that Itachi killed their clan expect for him.  
>14) Timcanpy is able to absorb Nightmare Souls. This could be a sign of protection as he was around to hear that she contains a benign Maverick Virus. He does this twice and coughs up smoke as a result.<br>15) Timcanpy is also built with a flashlight; it is part of him being a personal navigator for Shinja.  
>16) Although High Max wants to get rid of Shinja and is responsible for Zero Nightmare's first attack on Shinja, he still shows his loyalty to Gate by telloing him what Isoc has planned. He seems to have a sense of when things have gone too far, and doesn't want Shinja or Gate to risk themselves too soon.<br>17) Gate's use of the Japanese word/phrase "Nandato" can be sen as saying "What the hell?" or "What did you say?".  
>18) Shield Sheldon aiding Gate's escape is not far from what he was built to do: guard and protect. In battle, he shows the use of the learned technique Guard Shell, and it does reflect attacks although with the saber, he can still be damaged despite this.<br>19) Gate and Isoc have Ride Chasers as well. Except for Ride Armors, this is a Reploid's only means of transportation if teleportation cannot be used.  
>20) Shinja lies about finding a spider to cover up what she has found.<p> 


	9. Nightmare Control

Character Thoughts: "{abc}"  
>Translated Speech: "<em>abc<em>"

Chapter 9:  
>Nightmare Control<p>

Another flashback occurs within Shinja. She recalls how she and Double were constantly on the move due to the ongoing war with Repliforce, desperatly trying to stay out Sigma and the Hunters sights. At one point Shinja was under attack by Split Mushroom while Double was holding off two Raiden enemies. While X is a far distance away dealing with Sigma, only Colonel and Zero are within the area. Zero sees Split Mushroom attacking Shinja and quickly moves in using Raijingeki to finish him off. Before he could check on her, he is quickly attacked from the side by a Knot Beret G kicking him. Despite this, Shinja is able to get away and regroups with Double. As the battle viciously continues, they make their escape.

They come upon a subway with what looked to be a disabled train. It looked like it could still run, so the two head inside the train and to the main control unit. Double finds he can power it up while Shinja sits down. He feeds the train his own power and gets it moving. The train slowly picks up speed with its doors closing and within minutes is moving at regular speed. Shinja looks around the car and doesn't see any out of control or Maverick Mechaniloids. However, as they head into a tunnel, they hear a crunching sound from up top. It bursts through making strong winds from the moving train enter the car. As it stands erect, Shinja sees it's Slash Beast. He then lets out a roar and Double quickly rushes in front of her, preparing both his arm blades.

Slash Beast looks at him confused and asks, "Hold on...you look familiar...wait, aren't you that rookie Hunter, Double?"

Double replies, "Indeed I am, but I'm neither Hunter or Sigma's lackey. I'm a rogue Reploid now." He looks at Shinja and says, "Get into the control unit and shut the door. I have it on autopilot for now."

"Be careful, Double. Slash is quick and unpredictable. Don't charge at him if he's attempting to guard; he'll counter with charged energy slashes." Shinja warns, relaying info from the game and quickly rushes into the control unit, shutting the door.

Slash laughs before saying, "So, the girl _did_ finds some claws to use. But, there's no way you'll be able to beat me in this tiny space. I can adapt to any situation. You'll die here, Double."

Double smirks saying, "Oh please. You know nothing of my true abilities. You only knew my clumsy form. This is the real me. And if you're to threaten Peyton then you'll be facing me."

"Oh, very brave words. I admire your courage; no one's been able to talk big to me without getting pushed of my trains or dragged on the tracks. However, you're pretty much rebelling against two powerful people, aren't you?"

"I don't care. I plan on keeping Shinja safe until this is all over. After that, I'll approach X and Zero. I plan on repenting as soon as this war is over."

"Well, you're repenting well so far. But, you're on my train. If you surrender now, I'll let the girl live, but you'll be killed."

"Not happening."

"Then die!"

Slash lunges at Double attempting to grab him. Double dashes quickly underneath and is about to use his Spinning Energy Disc, but realizes that any outrageous attack could destroy the train as a result. The lion-like Maverick looks over at Double, getting the same thought. They stand glaring at each other, trying to figure out how either of them could win by simply using only melee techniques. Double makes it clear when he lunges as Slash with Kiba Flash, managing to stab him in his chest crystal. He removes his arm blade and Slash laughs saying he's glad that crystal isn't his weak point. He then slashes at Double's chest and while dealing some damage, finds the melee battle just got harder; a mini flying robit splits off from Double and hovers over Slash. It fires small plasma shot at him, but Slash simply destroys it with a single punch.

The two end up glaring at each other again. They think about who will strike next and what they'll do in the small space. Lunging is near impossible; both are very tall and can barely fit in the car. Although Slash claimed earlier he can adapt to any situation, he finds himself unable to. If it were X or Zero he was fighting, he'd be literally running circles around them. Claws out and arm blades loose, both finally charge at each other, soon gripping hands and pushing against the other in a power struggle. Neither give an inch, glaring at each other. Double finally makes a move and kicks Slash's side, forcing the lion-like Maverick down. He then stands over Slash and is about to stab his head crystal with his arm blade, when the train suddenly looses power and the door to the control unit locks up.

Double jumps up to the hole in the top Slash made, but quickly pulls himself back in as the train enters another tunnel. Once the tunel ends, Double pulls himself out and finds a slender Mega Nest containing several Kyuunbyuun (the bee-like enemies). One bee crawls out from he nest holding wire cables in its mouth. Double sees that the bees cut off vital cables that supply power to the train. He drops back in saying what's going on. Slash growls at this knowing the train is now on a collision course with a rotary at the end of the tracks; with no way to control it, applying the brakes cannot be done, so slowing down the train is impossible. The two look at each other and quickly form a truce in order to stop the train. After passing through another tunnel, Slash jumps out of the hole and in front of the train, running to keep ahead of it. He quickly jumps, placing his feet on the metal railings and his hands on the train attempting to slow it down with his brute power alone.

Shinja is banging on the door with all her might to try and break through, but she isn't strong enough to even dent the metal door. Double slashes at the door and pulls it apart allowing Shinja to climb out. They pass through another tunnel and Double carries Shinja out of the train and over to a platform. The scraping metal sound of Slash's feet against the metal railings can be heard. Although Double would rather let Slash die, the train won't be able to slow down in time. As soon as the last car appears, Double dashes over and grabs on, trying to pull it back and Shinja shouting his name. Double then gets an idea; he looks down at the "horns" on his feet. While entering another tunnel, Double jumps and jams the horns into the walls, making the train slow down and allowing Slash to push hard enough to stop the train in time; he was only a couple miles from the rotary.

Shinja's memory starts to end, recalling that Slash was eventually taken care of by X and Zero after he lead an attack on the White House. The attack was unsuccessful since the Maverick Hunters were able to head him off. Timcanpy asks Shinja if she is okay, and she replies she's okay. She looks at the body of her old friend, Double. His eyes are closed, systems shut down...there looked to be nothing left of him. As she goes to try and locate his mind thinking she can take that chip at least, his gelatanous body suddenly lights up with the orbs throughout his body lighting up. Soon, the crystal on his chest lights up, and Double opens his eyes. Groggy and dizzy with blurred vision, he shakes it off while sitting up. He looks over at Shinja not even recognizing her.

He asks, "Who are you? And what the f*ck happened? Augh, my head hurts."

She replies unsure how to react, "Double it's me, Peyton!"

He looks at her shocked and stunned saying, "There's no way you're Peyton! She wasn't a Reploid!"

"But it is me, Double!" Shinja argues, "I'm really a soul in this body! Remember how I talked about wanting a Reploid body as badass as yours?"

Double looks in her eyes, finding they're the same color, the face is the same from what he remembers, and her voice hasn't changed, and he asks, "Peyton? It's really you in there? How'd that happen?"

Shinja smiles and says, "It's a really long story...oh, and I changed my name too. I go by 'Shinja' now."

"Shinja? Aww, but I liked your human name."

"You know how much I hated it."

"Oh and hey...I found out you lied about your parents being killed by Slash Beast."

"They were, dumbass."

"Then who were the ones you were living with afterwards?"

"Foster care. They sucked just as much."

"...Oh...well, in that case, let's get out of here, huh?"

"Let's."

Shinja helps Double up and both find he's left a little weakened by being inactive. Timcanpy provides support by attaching himself to Double's back and spreading his wings. Double looks at Shinja and she shrugs not having a clue what to call the program. They head out of the control room, through the corridor, struggle to climb up the hole, head through those hallways, and soon reach the entrance point. Shinja crawls through it but Double smashes the glass windows, creating a bigger hole for him to get through. Magenta suddenly glomps Shinja out of the blue, creating a mark on her chest. Shinja kicks her Ride Chaser off her and scolds her for the glomp. Magenta apologizes and waits to be mounted not even bothering to ask who Double is as she can tell he's the source of the signal.

Upon seeing the Ride Chaser under control, Double immeditaly wants to drive. He approaches Magenta and as he is about to grab the handles, she backs up and he falls to the ground having lost balance. Shinja facepalms now seeing that only she can ride Magenta and not anyone else. Double stands up dusting himself off, but finally getting a real look at how filthy he got from stuffing himself in a closet. Shinja gets on Magenta with Double having to climb on the end and hold onto his friend. Before they could leave, they can feel rumbling coming from somewhere. Shinja turns Magenta around pointing her towards Gate's lab, seeing something suddenly rise from it. It is a large tower surrounded by four smaller towers, each one doning a grey colored "I" in Old English Text MT font with a four-pointed blue colored star in back of the "I".

Shinja looks at it feeling her heart sink and a cold sweat. She takes it as a way of saying that Isoc has fully taken over the lab. This makes her want to ride over there, but Magetna throws herself in park, saying it's a bad idea to head there now. Upset and unable to handle the sudden situation, Shinja has no choice but to head back to Maverick Hunter HQ with a mission complete. Double can sense something is wrong, but doesn't want to ask in case he makes her more upset.

At Maverick Hunter HQ, Dynamo had successfuly scared the daylights out of Zero resulting in Zero punching his neck crystal in. With repairs out of the way, Dynamo is up and bothering the Hunters in the Navigation Room to no end trying to get them to spar with him, but neither are giving in. That's when Gate appears surprising everyone as he is escorted by an officer Reploid. With Signas in the room overlooking Shinja's mission, he orders the Reploid away and allows Gate to enter. Even Dynamo is surprised Gate is here.

Signas asks, "Gate, why have you come here?"

Gate answers, "I received word from High Max that Isoc has plans to take me down. I know I've made my mistake by creating the Nightmare Virus, but I had no choice but to come here. Plus, how can you say no when Shinja will openly argue with you?"

X says, "He's got a point there."

"He does. But why does Isoc want to kill you?" Signas questions.

"Probably due to the fact that I became close friends with a human, and that same human helped decrypt 99.98% of Zero's DNA." Gate answers.

Dynamo can't help but joke, "And it all comes back to Zero."

Zero growls, "You'll be going through a wall pretty soon if you keep it up!"

Alia interrupts receiving a message, "Everyone, Shinja has returned! And she's...brought someone back with her?"

"Okay, this has gotten out of hand now. Did she find the source of the signal?" Signas says getting a little aggrivated.

"She has. The signal is coming from who she brought back with her. Oh, and one of the Reploids report her not being in a very good mood." Alia replies.

X says, "Oh no, what's got her upset now?"

They all soon hear her voice call, "Geito-kun!"

They hear a second voice, Double's voice, call, "Hold up will ya? You're faster than you were before!"

Everyone watches as Gate moves to the side and Shinja appears in the doorway out of breath. Double appears behind her and soon becomes frightened upon seeing X and Zero, who are take aback by his appearance. Shinja quickly sees Gate with tears starting to form in her eyes. Gate walks over to her and she quickly runs over and wraps her arms around him trying not to cry. Double tries to back away but Zero dashes over and grabs his arm rather violently dragging him into the room.

Gate asks keeping calm, "Shinja, what's the matter?"

She looks up at him announcing, "That bastard Isoc's taken over your lab completely!"

He gets serious in his response, "He what? I didn't expect him to do that! What the hell is he planning?"

"That means this battle only got worse." Signas says before looking over at Gate, "Gate, since you're stuck here, you'll be helping us to delete the Nightmare Virus."

"I wish I had all my data with me. By now, Isoc might have put in a new security code." Gate says.

Alia says, "That's where I come in. I'll try and hack into the mainframe and recover the data."

Zero asks, "So then what do we do with this guy?"

Double says, "Uh...riiight...I never got to tell you and X...heheh...it's me, Double."

Both X and Zero look at him dumbfounded as Timcanpy detaches and flies over to Signas, coughing up the two Nightmare Souls he absorbed. Gate sees this and laughs. Shinja looks at him confused.

Gate says, "While you weren't working on him, I built in a protection program. It absorbs the Nightmare Souls. Haha, I may not need my data after all!"

X asks, "Double? We thought you disappeared completely! We couldn't find you at all!"

"That's because I was busy being a rogue and protecting Shinja." Double replies.

Gate looks at Double, then at Shinja and she says, "It was WAY before you, Geito-kun. I only told you part of my background; I wasn't ready to tell you all of it yet."

"What is he to you?" Gate asks.

"Hey, I should be the one asking that." Double says.

Shinja turns to Double and says, "Geito-kun's more like a big brother to me; he's wicked protective."

"A brother? I can live with that!" Double says trying to grow a smile.

Gate says, "Okay, we're on the same page. But, what is Double to you? You have a lot more history with him."

Shinja isn't sure how to respond. She scratches the back of her head blushing slightly trying to find a way to answer. Double acts the same way and Dynamo gets it easily.

Dynamo says, "Ahh, so you two were _really_ close, eh?"

Double punches Dynamo in the face knocking him to the ground. Dynamo laughs saying he's right, only to get stomped by Double. The Hunters and Gate look at Shinja speechless that she may possibly have feelings for Double, but how much of that remains they can't tell. Signas regains everyone's attention by telling X to find a room for the new guys, stating they'll be room mates. As much as Gate wanted to argue, Signas instantly shoots him down saying it's final. He tells Alia to start looking at the Nightmare Souls Timcanpy has brought back for the time being, and orders Zero to bring Double to the Lavation Quarters in the West Wing so he can clean himself off. Finally he tells Shinja to head over to Douglas to be analyzed. Everyone does as their told, even though Gate wants to fulfill his brotherly duties and beat up Double.

With Shinja being scanned and analyzed for any vrus that may have snuck into her system, a final memory plays out. The war against Repliforce has ended, the Final Weapon destroyed. The Maverick Hunters work tirelessly with their new world trying to help repair any damages. With both worlds combined together, construction on Eurasia is quickly underway. With hundreds of humans and Reploids working together on the colony, it if finished within a few months and will be launched into space a month later. Double has been able to live peacefully with Shinja, not showing his face to the Maverick Hunters out of fear he will be labeled and Maverick and taken care of immediatly. Instead, he vulonteers to work within Space Colony Eurasia, much to Shinja's dismay.

Shinja tries to get Double to reconsider leaving her should trouble show its ugly face again. Although he tries to get her to come with her, she fears something bad happenening in space and dying on the spot. Instead, she is placed in foster care since she is unable to support herself. Double visits her every day and takes her out building a bond with her that she'll never forget. Shinja occasionally stays with Double in his Colony Dorm Room to try and spend as much time with him as possible. However, the day before the launch arrives. It is night and Double is about to leave for good.

"Double..." Shinja tries to say without getting emotional, "...these past few months have been the best time of my life. I don't know how I'm gonna survive without you here."

"You'll find a way, Peyton." Double responds. "The people that took you in seem nice. And this adventure will only be for a few months. I'll be helping to design pods so those that want to return to Earth can."

"You'll be one of them, right?"

"Of course. Like I wanna stay up there any longer than that."

"I really don't want you to go."

"Peyton, it's not like we can't be in contact. We can Skype; there are satellites up there you know. We both have each other's names."

"True. But still...you're the only friend I've got."

"...It's okay. I'll be back in a few months. I know, as soon as the launch is successful and the internet on the colony is working, I'll message you."

"Alright. Be careful up there, Double."

"You take care, Peyton."

The flooding memories begin to draw to a close. She was able to Skype with Double up until both sides received word that the colony was going to crash in 16 hours a couple months later. Ever since then,the two were unable to keep contact and the humans fled underground. The bond Shinja had with her foster parents quickly broke and they ended up getting into many arguements, leading Shinja to where she is now: a human soul in a Reploid body. She eventually assumed Double had died as he never found her, instead being found by Gate and him giving her a new name. Her scanning soon ends and her analysis is complete; she has nothing wrong with her and Douglas lets her go.

Meanwhile in Isoc's lab, Sheldon had passed on the word to Blizzard Wolfang that he is in charge of the remaining operations. This new status quickly goes into conflict as Isoc has heard it just by passing by in the halls. Sheldon and Wolfang go on the defensive, waiting to see what Isoc will do.

"So, Gate is gone, and he's leaving a mutt like you in charge? Not on my watch." Isoc says.

Wolfang growls, "Like he'd leave you in charge! But I'm pretty sure once he sees these towers he'll be looking for you!"

Isoc retorts, "He's got nothing on me. He can't battle. However, if you and the other six plan on rebelling against me, you're sadly mistaken."

Sheldon asks, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh High Max!" Isoc calls.

High Max approaches the arguing Reploids having no life in his eyes. Sheldon and Wolfang are blown away by this, Wolfang glaring angrily at Isoc.

"You twisted bastard. What did you do to him?" Wolfang demands.

"It was easy." Isoc states, " I simply took out his mind chip and now he's a mindless zombie responding only to my commands. You six are next."

"{Damn it! It's almost a repeat of Zero Nightmare and Metal Shark Player! Is he really going to do this to the remaining Investigators because we have a spot for Shinja in our hearts? I can't let this happen!}" Wolfang thinks.

* * *

><p><strong>Trivia:<br>**1) Double protects Shinja throughout the war with Repliforce, and Shinja mentions how Zero saved her.  
>2) Slash Beast is still alive at this point, and even later on, suggesting he was able to adapt to the ongoing war and fight his way through anything. However, the train proved this wrong as he and Double are both very tall Reploids and can't maneuver in a tight spot.<br>3) Double and Slash quickly form a truce to stop the train. While Double did so in order to save Shinja, Slash did it possibly due to something being stored inside the train.  
>4) Shinja's true name is revealed to be Peyton. She reinstates that when Gate found her, he gave her a name.<br>5) Magenta shows her dislike of others trying to ride her.  
>6) Isoc takes full control of Gate's lab and comes up with his own emblem.<br>7) Double reveals himself to X and Zero; it is later said he didn't before out of fear of being terminated.  
>8) Both Double and Gate find themselves in a typical situation of [possible] love interest versus brother. Whether Shinja sees Double as her partner remains unknown.<br>9) Dynamo's personality gets the better of him again, seeing the obvious signs that Shinja and Double display, earning him getting hit twice, further proving he could be right.  
>10) Shinja reveals that she often talked to Double about having a Reploid body like his; sadly, she modeled it after Zero.<br>11) Isoc reveals he removed High Max's mind chip, possibly after finding out that the large nearly invincible Reploid told Gate everything.


	10. A Fight to Survive

Character Thoughts: "{abc}"  
>Translated Speech: "<em>abc<em>"

Chapter 10:  
>A Fight to Survive<p>

Shinja walks through the halls of the base soon being joined by Timcanpy; he had finally been released by Signas after Alia scanned him to be sure he didn't have the effects from the Nightmare Souls he coughed up. Wanting to find the guys, they head for the West Wing but something doesn't feel right all of a sudden. Shinja looks around unsure if she is being followed. She sees nothing and moves on. The uneasy feeling quickly serges through her again. She grabs her saber and turns around with it drawn, again finding nothing. Fed up with it she starts to look around the hall having no luck in finding what could have been following her. Then she remembers the tower she saw rise from Gate's lab, how Isoc has taken over. The uneasy feling begins to fade; it is knowing that Isoc has taken over her home is giving her a bad feeling. With a new threat looming over and only two Investigators defeated, Shinja knows she has to hurry up and become stronger for the sake of the six remaining Investigators she befriended.

Timcanpy lands on her shoulder displaying TT^TT and a small heart; he is showing her sympathy. Not having the right strength to take on Isoc, Shinja will have to train as hard as possible, and she knows this. She then tries to shake of the depressed thoughts and feelings, sheaths her saber, and moves on to the West Wing. However, in said wing, not everything was going smoothly at all.

Gate has snuck away down a corridor as X was leading him and Dynamo to a room for them and Double to stay in. He has already found a floor in the same wing within the basement levels known as the Lavation Quarters; it is located on the first basement level. One side has stalls meant for female Reploids only while the other side is meant for the men. A little confused by this, asking himself why there are gender-specific sides, he heads into the men's side being blasted by a cloud of steam. The steam already begins to cling to his armor as condensation. Gate walks through one aisle of stalls seeing a few being occupied. He turns the corner to his left finding lockers containing Armor; Double technically would only be able to remove his helmet since most of his body is gelatin. He turns to the right exploring the maze of stalls, soon coming to a turn where Zero is. He hides around the corner and watches. Zero is simply keeping guard and waiting for Double to finish up so he can lead him to the West Wing.

Zero asks, "You almost set in there, Double?"

"Augh, who knew dust was so difficult to wash off! Each time I get done scrubbing one part, another gets covered in wet dust!" Double replies frustrated.

"Keheh...maybe it isn't _dust_."

"Wha...? Oh Zero, c'mon, we can't reproduce like humans! We can't breed at all!"

"Hahaha, I was just kidding!"

"You sounded serious."

"Maybe if you weren't 50% **jelly**."

"For God sake, Zero! What is wrong with you?"

"Hey, the way you two responded to Gate's question said everything. And since you said a moment ago you knew her when she was human, I'm gettin' all kinds of thoughts in my head."

"...You...are...sick."

"Damn straight. So, did you?"

"Did I what?"

"Do anything with her?"

"You mean...? No, of course not."

"You sound upset about it."

"...I dunno. I really wanted to just be with her, y'know? Back then, I was wishing there was a way I could become human."

"...Wow, you really wanted to get serious..."

"Yeah...Oh, I'm sorry, I must be reminding you of-"

"It's okay. Shinja practically reminds me of Iris every now and then."

"I bet you like to think she's a reincarnation or something."

"I try not to get those thoughts. Yeah I see her as a friend, but she's an apprentice too."

"So, you have no bigger feelings, right?"

"Dude, she's yours. I'm not gonna do anything like that. You can even come to her training sessions if you like."

"Thanks Zero."

Gate is able to hear everything. Now he knows how strong Double's feelings are for Shinja. Although he really wants to beat the living hell out of Double, he does want to see Shinja happy. That's his only dream. Losing himself in deep thoughts, he almost didn't notice the door to the stall open. He ducks into an empty stall as Zero leads Double through the aisle to the lockers for a towel. Once they're out of sight, Gate emerges and quickly heads back out the way he came.

Back in the West Wing, X and Dynamo are wondering where Gate disappeared to. X found a spare room with two recharge beds and a mobile one, although it is further from his room; he wanted to keep it close for Shinja, but everything was taken. Dynamo comes up with a theory that Gate snuck off to find Double so he can beat him. X looks at him hoping Gate isn't doing that. At that point Shinja finds them and asks them about Gate and Double. Dynamo shares his theory with X trying to cover his mouth. This backifires as he licks the blue bomber's palm making X flinch and freak out. Shinja stands there with an unamused look.

Meanwhile at Isoc's Lab, the remaining six Investigators - Blizzard Wolfang, Blaze Heatnix, Shield Sheldon, Commander Yammark, Rainy Turtloid, and Ground Scaravich - are all under attack by Isoc and are unable to send out a distress call to the Maverick Hunters; their only ray of hope. Turtloid is at the Inami Temple trying to fend off all the Mechaniloids there as well as the Nightmare Virus itself. He withdraws into his shell drawing spikes and spins around rapidly, flying through the air destroying all the enemies attacking him. All the Nightmare Viruses become souls, but Turtloid realizes he can't absorb or dispose of them. They revive and charge at him. The crystals in his shell open and he sends out a flurry of missiles, destroying all the viruses. He soon finds himself winded and drops to his hands and knees out of breath. With this break, he quickly gets up and rushes inside the temple knowing he has a small window of opportunity to send out a distress call.

Heatnix is in the Magma Area when the strike occurs. The five Nightmare Snakes within the area corner Heatnix and to his amazement uncoil. They hiss loudly (having a call similar to _Dialga_ of _Pokemon_), charging their new attacks from the orbs on their backs. Heatnix quickly uses Magma Stream to damage the snakes, but they cancel charging their attack and dodge the non-fatal magma. They've become quicker than before now having the consciousness to actually fight and not remain curled up. One snake quickly wraps around Heatnix and catches him in a bind making him unable to move. The other four surround him with the fifth's head over him, and reveal the cannons hidden in their mouths. Heatnix watches as they charge this attack but then gets an idea. He struggles hard and manages to surround his body in flames just as the snakes fire their cannons. After the attack, they find that Heatnic made himself invulnerable.

The other four were at the lab when Isoc has a mindless High Max attack Wolfang and Sheldon. Scaravich and Yammark can sense something's amiss and rush to their aid when something else blocks them: one half of the Nightmare Mother. It acts exactly like a wall as the other half traps them in the hallway. Both of them know they don't have creative attacks compared to the other Investigators, especially Scaravich as his only attacks include rolling various size rocks, kicking said rocks, and firing small shots. Yammark has diversity, and can shield Scaravich with his dragonflies, and can use his dragonflies as missiles. The problem is the small amount of space to move in as well as having to wait for the Nightmare Mother to attack.

Scaravich says, "Yammark, I have an idea, but I'll need your dragonflies for it."

Yammark asks, "What are you gonna do?"

"With your dragonflies, I can make a large boulder and push it into the bodies. The Nightmare Mother will overload slightly and become stunned, weakening to the point where a hole will appear. You must fly through that hole and escape."

"What? Scaravich, I can't leave you! You have the least amount of attacks out of all of us!"

"That's because I'm still a Treasure Hunter at heart. I only became an Investigator because of Gate. You have to be the one to send out a distress call, if not escape this place and find Shinja."

"I can't!"

"You have to! We'll be lucky if one of us survives this...I know I won't be the lucky one."

"Scaravich!"

"Do it for Shinja..."

"...Ngh, okay. For Shinja!"

Yammark is able to summon his dragonflies while the Nightmare Mother is unable to move, the eyes looking all around in case of sneak attacks. With the dragonflies, Scaravich begins to work quickly turning them into a boulder that he can roll. Within minutes, he has a medium-sized boulder. He props his feet up against the boulder and pushes it into one of the halves. The Nightmare Mother's defenses are strong, fighting back against Scaravich by pushing the boulder. Yammark helps out by firing his own shots at the foe giving Scaravich the edge he needs to push the boulder right into the enemy's DNA mesh. As expected, the enemy begins to overload now having DNA of something else causing it pain. The Nightmare Mother becomes stunned and weakens considerably now looking like swiss cheese with holes small enough for Yammark to quickly dash through. Reluctant and not wanting to leave Scaravich behind, Yammark dashes through one of the holes before the foe recovers and spits the boulder back at the Dung Beetle Reploid.

Yammark looks back wantin to help Scaravich, but he knows if he does, then the sacrifice will have been for nothing. He has no choice but to escape and do so quickly while he has the chance. He flies hrough the halls as quickly as possible soon coming upon a small transmission room. He lands in it shutting the door and having it lock while he tries to get the transmitter to work. The machine is activated and Yammark sends out a distress call to the Maverick Hunters with a message attached:

_Attention Maverick Hunters,  
>This is Commander Yammark. Isoc is starting to fully take control of Gate's lab. He's attacking the rest of us Investigators as we befriended little Shinja. I'm not sure if he wants to kill us or turn us into mindless zombies like he did High Max. Either way, I'm on the way to your base; I can't stay here and someone must survive...<br>...For Shinja..._

He sends the message and dashes out of the transmission room. Nightmare Viruses are now managing the halls and spot the dragonfly Reploid. Yammark summons three dragonflies and fires at the viruses, easily destroying them and collecting their souls in a special purple-colored dragonfly. Each hall he enters there are several Nightmare Viruses that he easily destroys and takes the souls. He flies up to the roof figuring it'd be the safest plce to exit from and amazingly it is the safest. There isn't one Nightmare-based enemy in sight. An empty cannon lies in wait to be loaded; this is the only way out. Yammark dismisses the dragonflies save for the purple one, jumps into the cannon, enters the cooridinates, and fires it, successfully launching himself out of the lab...screaming his head off on the way through the clouds.

Inside once again, Wolfang and Sheldon manage to escape from High Max with severe injuries, bleeding fairly heavily. Sheldon's right arm had been ripped off while Wolfang's tail had been blasted off with a Death Ball. They turn a corner and hide in a small closet, Wolfang slamming the door shut. Both wind up coughing with Sheldon coughing up blood due to his injuries. Wolfang is more out of breath but still has energy to run albeit on four legs instead of two; Sheldon isn't too badly out of breath due to being able to shield himself but he is running out of energy.

Wolfang says, "Sheldon..."

Sheldon asks, "Nani?"

"...I think it's best if you make a run for it while I deal with Isoc."

"Are you insane? I'm the one with the defenses, you should be the one to run! You're the new leader; let me protect you!"

"No Sheldon. As the new person in charge, it's my duty to protect those under my command. You run."

"Wolfang, take a good look at me. I had my arm ripped off. You had your tail blasted off. I'm losing more blood than you are; the heat from the Death Ball practically cauterized your wound. You have more life than me right now...please, let me fulfill my duty."

"I can't let you."

"Look, those of us remaining are important to Shinja. Not many of us will survive this battle. Do you know why Isoc is doing this?"

"...I can't think of any other reason than Shinja..."

"No. Although he is jealous of her for the fact that she is quite bright, he wants POWER. He's doing all this to have the most power, more power than Gate ever had. Ever since he started working with Zero's DNA, that's all he ever talked about. He wants to take out Gate for the sake of being the greatest scientist and researcher, then he plans to challenge other powerful scientists. We can't let him get that kind of power."

"How do you know all this?"

"I conversed with High Max every now and then. The point is, only one of us can survive right now, and it has to be you. Run to the Maverick Hunters, run fast."

"...Sheldon..._grr_, alright."

"If I get turned into a mindless zombie, tell Shinja that if I become the foe...tell her to smack me with an anchor."

"...Understood."

They can suddenly hear the heavy footsteps of High Max. This is it. Sheldon breaks through the door quickly putting up his Guard Shell getting High Max's attention. High Max attacks Sheldon and he quickly dodges, the large Reploid giving chase. Wolfang makes a break for it dashing through the halls dodging each Nightmare Virus as they came, not wanting to waste any more energy. He makes it to the main entrance in a matter of minutes and breaks through the doors rushing off to the Hunter Base. Up in the sky he can see Commander Yammark flying in an erratic manner being sure not to become a target. He knows he's not the only one that got out.

At Maverick Hunter HQ, X, Zero, Shinja, Gate, Dynamo, and Double were called to the Navigation Room. Signas reveals they received a distress call from what he is now calling Isoc's Lab. He fills them in that Commander Yammark is the one who sent it out and that he is en route to the base, and how the remaining Investigators are under attack. Now completely furious Shinja tries to run out of the room to go grab Magenta and save her friends, but Gate is the one to hold her back saying it's way too dangerous. They struggle for a good two minutes before Shinja finally gives up. X and Zero volunteer to go save the others, but Signas doesn't allow it stating that they're getting large readings of the Nightmare Virus within the structure.

Double soon demandingly volunteers to go out and save them. Dynamo adds in his willingness to go since the two don't need to know any special moves to take down the Nightmare Virus. Signas denies letting them go not wanting to let anyone get caught in the crossfire. This only infuriates Shinja; she elbows Gate in the stomach causing him to let go and she marches right up to Signas arguing that her friends are in trouble and demands to go rescue them. That's when Alia picks up two signals heading towards the base. Signas looks at Shinja and allows her to go out and meet up with them. The others quickly get the idea; he wanted to make sure any survivor got within a safe enough range to be rescued. With that, they all rush out of the room.

Several miles away from the base, Wolfang and Yammark have joined together to make it to the base. Wolfang starts to run out of steam as he slows down. Yammark flies back and grabs hold of the Wolf Reploid carrying him the rest of the way. Up ahead they can see a large dust cloud. As they close in, they notice the dust cloud is being made by five Ride Chasers; they know they're saved. That's when out of nowhere something appears from the ground; it's a giant Nightmare Snake and it's holding Heatnix in its mouth. Everyone stops their Ride Chasers and Yammark slows to a stop, all watching in awe. Shinja jumps off Magenta with Double close behind her as she charges at the large Machaniloid.

Just as she gets close it tosses Heatnix to the ground, him crashing into the earth with a lot of force. The Nightmare Snake hisses loudly as Shinja moves to Heatnix. Yammark carefully flies around the large Mechaniloid carrying Wolfang and they see the carnage. He closes in and lets Wolfang down so both can see Heatnix. The Snake hisses again this time charging the cannon in its mouth. X quickly charges his buster and fires directly at the cannon causing damage and for the charge to cancel. Double picks up Heatnix and carries him over behind the Ride Chasers with Shinja, Wolfang, and Yammark close behind. Dynamo, Zero, and X keep the Mechaniloid at bay while Gate takes a look at Heatnix.

Shinja shakes Heatnix begging, "Heatnix! Heatnix! Wake up!"

He manages to slowly open his eyes, looks at Shinja and replies, "Shinja? You're looking well...*cough cough*"

Yammark says, "Whoa, take it easy, big guy. Save your breath."

Wolfang asks, "What the hell happened?"

"*cough* Well, I guess something happened at the lab, because my Nightmare Snakes went berserk and al five of them attacked me... I-I was able to go invincible inb order to escape, but they fused themselves together becoming what you see now...*cough cough* The damn thing dragged me from the Magma Area underground and I couldn't do a thing." Heatnix explains.

"You can rest now, Heatnix. I'll take care of that thing!" Shinja says getting up.

She rushes to join the guys in the battle telling them to aim for the orbs, otherwise they never damage it. Heatnix laughs at this commenting that she hasn't changed.

Gate says, "You don't look like you'll be reaching critical state any time soon, but we still need to get you repaired."

Yammark explodes full of stress, "AAAARRRRGGHHH! Why is this happening? I can't take it anymore! Scaravich is in there fighting the Nightmare Mother by himself with his limited attacks! Everything is being controlled by the Nightmare and going berserk!"

Wolfang slaps him growling, "Calm down, dragonfly! I had to leave Sheldon behind to deal with High Max! How do you think I feel?"

"Damn that Isoc...he's spent so much time with Zero's DNA that he's craving power now. If only my secondary armor was complete, I'd take him out!" Gate growls.

"Either way, he's gained too much power already just by taking over your lab. He's going more insane than Sigma ever did. If we're going to take him down, we all need to be well prepared." Double says.

X is thrown back by the Snake, falling onto his back. Zero double jumps onto the Snake's head and stabs the orb several times, destroying it with ease. Dynamo spins his saber launching four of them at the Mechaniloid all of them not even causing damage, however, as they boomerang back they hit another orb destroying it. Shinja sees and orb and stabs it using Raijingeki, then slashes it multiple times until it is destroyed. X rejoins the battle and sends two charge shots at the final orb destroying it. The Nightmare Snake shuts down and collapses to one side. Shinja looks towards the new tower glaring at it with intense rage. The others see this and X is the one to walk over to her and place his hand on her head. She snaps out of her rage and looks over at him.

* * *

><p><strong>Trivia:<br>**1) Shinja's feeling of uneasyness is more of a warning of what is about to happen at the lab.  
>2) Gate discovers that there are gender-specific lavation quarters. Again, this does not hint towards Reploids having the ability to be nude like humans; who says they can't have privacy like us?<br>3) Double's armor is rather complex as most of it is gelatin.  
>4) Zero is guarding Double for two reasons: so he can show him to the bedroms, and to make sure Gate doesn't kill him.<br>5) Double reveals he's had really strong feelings for Shinja when she was human, going so far as wishing he could be human himself.  
>6) Zero makes a lot of sexual jokes in his conversation with Double, despite the fact that they are not human.<br>7) I compare the Nightmare Snake's hiss to that of the _Pokemon Dialga_. It has a hiss-like roar, but it's difficult to describe.  
>8) One of Heatnix's attacks allow him to be invulnerable.<br>9) Scaravich sacrifices himself so that Yammark can escape; since he is only a Treasure Hunter his range of attacks are more limited compared to the others, having one of the most simplest patters to read. Yammark can also fit through small openings as his body is the slimmest of all the Investigators.  
>10) Sheldon was built for guarding and protecting. In the game, he talks about wanting to fulfill his duty. Wolfang also talks about this in the game; both want to repay Gate for giving them a second chance. Sheldon, having more damage done to him, sacrifices himself for Wolfang to escape.<br>11) Signas's refusal to let the Hunters loose was due to wanting everyone to be within a safe enough distance to be noticed on the radar.  
>12) There are five Nightmare Snakes in Heatnix's level. Since Isoc has taken control, anything that is a Nightmare is under his command, which explains why the snakes uncoiled and fused.<br>13) Gate mentions his secondary armor (his gold battle armor) isn't even finished. It is never made clear if he has had this armor all along or if he made it during the time the Nightmare came into play.  
>14) Despite the fact that X and Zero have their respective Giga Attacks (Ray Arrow and Rekkouha), they are not used to take down the Nightmare Snake. This is to avoid killing the fanfic by making the Hunters knowledgable to everything. I made sure that Shinja didn't mention it as I want this story to be as intense as possible.<p> 


	11. Raining on Sacrifice

Character Thoughts: "{abc}"  
>Translated Speech: "<em>abc<em>"

Chapter 11:  
>Raining on Sacrifice<p>

"I just don't understand. Why does Isoc want so much power?" Shinja asks, watching Blaze Heatnix and Blizzard Wolfang being repaired.

"Wolfang told me that Isoc is jealous of Gate. All of his Reploids...all of us became similar to X and Zero as our data couldn't be analyzed. But, the other thing that I know about is the fact that Gate has a secondary armor that's still being worked on. Isoc can't create a battle-type armor as he was never made for that purpose. He knows he can use High Max at his disposal as High Max is practically invincible." Yammark explains.

"...That's right...Gate has his Battle Armor while Isoc has absolutely nothing. And now Isoc has full control of the Nightmare. Yammark, what am I gonna do?"

"What do you mean? You're going to fight this, aren't you?"

"I'm starting to think I might be causing everyone all this trouble. Ever since I got close to Geito-kun, everyone's been after me."

"Not everyone, Shinja."

"...I know you and the other five like me, but look at Shark Player, Mijinion, and High Max. I feel like all I'm doing is just causing X and Zero trouble. That's not what I wanted to do."

"C'mon, Shinja..."

They hear Signas call, "Shinja, come on now."

Shinja sighs saying, "Keep an eye on them and let me know what happens."

She turns and walks away leaving Sick Bay as Yammark stands not knowing what to do or say. Shinja meets up with Signas just outside the door looking up at him expecting an order.

Signas sarts, "Shinja, it may not mean very much, but I apologize for what's going on."

Shinja says, "It isn't your fault all this is going on. Is there another mission?"

"Not for the moment. We're trying to hack into Isoc's security system to see if there's a safe route in. Gate's doing all he can to figure out how to delete the virus using the souls Timcanpy collected."

"..."

"Shinja, try not to let Isoc's actions get under your skin. I'm well aware of how much a human can hold onto a grudge, but you can't create one against Isoc right now, no matter what's going on. The second you let that happen is the second you can lose your life in battle. And right now you only have one life. If you get severely or critically damaged, you may not come back."

"I can't let go of this one. First I lose my home to Slash Beast. Then I lose my second home to the Eurasia Colony Incident. And now I've lost my third home to Isoc. How much more am I going to lose before I lose the will to fight?"

"Shouldn't wanting to take your home back give you all the motivation and will you need to fight?"

"..."

"Look, in the time you've been spending watching your friends get repaired, Double explained the rest of your past to us."

"He what?"

"He felt he had to so we could try to understand you better. Heh, X is always on that level and he sympathizes with you greatly. Even Zero still feels guilt from all the fighting that went on."

"I'm sure Geito-kun's pissed."

"Well, more mad at Double, but he's glad to have finally learned everything."

"...I hope he doesn't plan on beating up Double."

"No, we'll be keping him occupied. You should go rest. You've had a long day."

"Alright."

Signas lets Shinja go as she heads for the West Wing. All he can think is how much pain Shinja must be feling right now, having learned her horrible past as well as learning how she feels. All Shinja can think about doing is taking down Isoc, only now she knows it won't be very easy. Scaravich and Sheldon have made bold sacrifices so Yammark and Wolfang can get away and seek help. Heatnix came under attack from his own Mechaniloids and is paying the price. She has no idea if Rainy Turtloid is okay; he has yet to send any kind of distress call. It takes her a few minutes before she reaches X's room walking inside of it without much thought. She is surprised to see Double sitting on her bed looking over Timcanpy. He sees her and lets Timcanpy go, the Machaniloid golem quickly flying out the room without warning.

He looks at her seeing the upset look on her face. He leans back against the wall giving her the signal to sit next to him by patting a spot. She walks over to him and sits down, Double soon wrapping an arm around her. He can sense the uneasy aura around her. At first he says nothing, letting her think to herself as she leans against him.

He finally says a moment later breaking the silence, "Shinja, I'm sorry. I told the others about us."

She says, "It's okay. They would've found out sooner or later. I just wish none of this had to happen."

"Don't talk like that. It may seem hopeless now, but you've got us to support you. X and Zero are ready for anything at this point. You're a Reploid now; you've got to expect the worst all the time."

"I know. I did it a lot before the rift happened. I just can't predict what will happen next. I have a feeling Isoc has Sigma's body."

"Do you think he's rebuilding it?"

"He's gotta be. He has everything right there in the lab. He can do anything he wants now..."

"Don't get so upset. I'm still here; I haven't died."

"But what if you get killed?"

"I can't die; I still have you to protect."

Hearing that makes Shinja realize he's right. She's forgotten how hard Double's fought for her, and all the sacrifices he made to keep her safe and himself out of sight. Shinja looks up at him and he looks down at her. All of a sudden both of them start to feel something, a mutual feeling. They start to slowly lean into each other. Double remembers this feeling and after all this time he's able to express it. This feeling is brand new to Shinja; she isn't sure what to think but her human instinc is starting to take over. They soon find themselves kissing each other, Double trying to make it passionate. They find themselves wrapping their arms around each other in a loving embrace before Shinja lies on her back taking Double with her.

The two break away needing to take a breath as they look at each other. Double grows a half smile happy to be finaly expressing his true feelings to her, but at the same time is slightly scared he may be going too fast. Shinja smiles back at him happy to know how he really felt, even though she had an idea. They quickly return to the passionate kiss, Double trying to be sneaky. She plays hard-to-get trying to see what he'll do next. He tries licking her bottom lip almost begging for entrance. She continues to play hard-to-get enjoying the reaction of Double's frustration. Double tries once more this time carefully biting her bottom lip. Shinja nearly flinches from this allowing him in. The passion increases between them both as the outside world no longer matters.

The door suddenly opens, Shinja and Double not noticing at all as X enters the room, freezing in place in shock with a dumbfounded look on his face. Seeing the two make out makes him feel overly awkward and he dashes out of the room, his face turning as red as a tomato. Shinja and Double are completely oblivous to the outside world having no clue X saw them. She starts to slide her hands down to his hips when she realizes she isn't human anymore and he is a pure Reploid. He can tell she is becoming depressed over the fact and decides to slide his hands down to her hips, managing to cheer her up. The kiss remains passionate until X is knocked down through the door with swirls for eyes with Zero entering the room catching the two.

Although Zero grins evily getting ideas of how to scare them, he gets another idea. He walks over to his bed being as quiet as possible, bends to his knees and presses a button. A small drawrer comes out containing a digital camera. He takes out the camera turning it on and finds a way to point it at Shinja and Double. Turning the flash off so as not to startle them he takes the picture. X finally recovers flipping onto his stomach soon seeing Zero with the camera. Zero gets up and rushes out the room jumping over X. X stands up and gives chase knowing exactly what his best friend is about to do.

Shinja tries to break the kiss, but Double continues on to her cheeck and soon her neck as she says, "Double, someone was in here."

He replies, "I know. I'll take him out after."

"You'll take him out now."

"Okay, okay...just one more minute..."

"...Alright...one more minute..."

Zero runs through the halls heading for the Laboratory in the East Wing while X chases him down failing to catch up. That's when a soldier enters the hall looking over a report he made. Zero doesn't see him in time as he is taunting X and suddenly crashes into the soldier, the both of them falling to the floor, the soldier dropping his report. X makes his move by quickly dashing, jumps over his friend and the soldier, grabs the camera and rushes off. Zero sits up shaking his head when he notices his camera is gone. He calls out X's name before giving chase.

At least he would be giving chase if it wasn't for Double suddenly appearing before him. Zero takes a couple steps back as Double shoots him a psychotic look. Zero puts up his hands in surrender.

"O-okay, big guy, there's no need for a confrontation." Zero says getting a bad feeling.

Double closes in taking out an arm blade saying, "There won't be one so long as you give me the camera."

Zero replies, "Honestly, X took it from me. He's got it now."

"X has it? Do you know where he's heading?" Double asks.

He then sees X on the other side of the hallway running by and Zero says, "Apparently back to the bedroom."

X makes it back to his room running in and locking the door, huffing from all the running around. As soon as he turns around he sees Shinja and jumps back hitting the door. He looks at her realizing she isn't going to hurt him as she smiles at him in a cute way.

"I had a feeling you'd be coming back here. You're not very creative with hiding, huh, X?" Shinja says.

X replies, "Keheh, no I'm not. Uh, you probably want this, huh?"

"Yeah. Let me see it."

"Don't delete anything of his, okay?"

He hands over the camera to her. She turns it on and selects a file containing all the pictures and immediatly the picture of her and Double pops up. She is about to hit delete when she realizes something.

"Is something wrong, Shinja-chan?" X asks.

"This is the only picture of me and Double. I took pictures of us before, but they all burned in a fire. I...I can't delete it." Shinja replies.

"So that's your only picture now, right? Why not download it into your memory?"

"I can do that?"

"Yeah. Here I'll show you."

The alarm suddenly sounds, Alia's voice telling X, Zero, and Shinja to report to the Navigation Room. Shinja places the camera on Zero's bed and she and X rush out the room. As they pass by a hallway Zero quickly joins them along with Timcanpy who he found. They make it to the Navigation Room minutes later seeing Gate standing next to Signas.

"Hunters, we've received a distress call. It's coming from the Inami Temple." Signas announces.

Gate continues, "I've made a scan of the area and it is infested with all kinds of Nightmare. There's also a lot of acid rain pouring down, so try to seek shelter as often as possible."

Alia says, "The distress call was actually sent a while ago, but something prevented it from us receiving it. Please be careful. I've input the coordinates into the Teleportation Pod."

"Should you need any backup, Double and Dynamo have volunteered. The rain is coming down heavy like a waterfall." Signas says.

X looks over at Shinja knowing her armor isn't as thick as his or Zero's leaving her open to more damage. He says, "Shinja-chan, maybe you should sit this one out."

"F*ck no. Turtloid is there and he's in trouble. I'll be the one to save him." Shinja says.

Gate says, "In that case, I've installed a protection program in Timcanpy that'll fully protect him from acid, but the damage to you will only be halved. It'll activate as soon as you arrive."

Alia says, "I've put in coordinates so the three of you will start in a safe spot, giving Timcanpy time to activate the program. Again, please be careful."

With that they head for the Teleportation Pod. As soon as they step on it they are teleported to the inside of a hollow tree just outside the temple. Timcanpy activates the program, placing a shield around himself and a barrier around the Hunters. Before X and Zero dart out, Shinja calls them saying she knows a shortcut through the forest. Not wanting to go through the heavy rain, they agree to follow her. As soon as they exit the tree with Shinja taking the lead a Nightmare Virus appears dashing at the Hunters. They jump aside noticing how more aggressive the Nightmare has become. X fires a few shots at it, but it doesn't fall. The virus turns around and fires its own round of plasma shots forcing X to dodge and end up in the rain. He shuffles back under the safety of the trees and looks at himself; the acid had already started to melt his armor.

Zero lunges at the virus slashing horizontally cutting it in half. The virus turns into a blue soul. Shinja has Timcanpy fly over to it and he absorbs the soul, coughing up smoke. As he flies back over to Shinja Zero helps X up, noticing how bad the acid rain is, seeing his communicator is damaged already. Shinja looks at the trees noticing the leaves at the very top have mulitple holes in them. The acid contect in the rain is disgustingly high. Another Virus appears behind Shinja. She turns around quickly slashing it in two. It turns into a blue soul which Timcanpy absorbs, coughing up smoke. A third one appears from above. X jumps up to it by wall-kicking the tree while firing at it. He eventually destroys it turning it into a soul. The tiny golem flies up and absorbs it, coughing up smoke.

"God damn..." says Shinja, "Three in a row and we barely went anywhere? Things _are_ bad here."

"No kidding. We'll have to tread as lightly as possible so we don't attract anymore viruses." X says.

Zero says, "I got news for you, X, we'll be attracting anything that's here no matter how we move."

Shinja growls, "Can we move on? Turtloid's in trouble!"

Hearing the anger and worry in her voice, X and Zero agree to move on. The shortcut through the jungle proves to take longer than it should as Nightmare Viruses continue to ambush the Hunters, causing Timcanpy to absorb their souls and cough up smoke. As they make their way through the jungle, they come across what appear to be Virus versions of X and Zero, almost resembling the Zero Virus. The clones dash at the Hunters with Shinja timing her jumps poorly since the clones delay themselves a few seconds before they strike, making dodging difficult to time. At one point Shinja has had it and tries slashing at one clone. This proves ineffective as it damages her anyway. X checks to make sure she's okay from the barrage, only to get shoved away by her stubborn attitude. She's determined to save her friend at all costs.

Eventually they make it to the temple itself, running through the acid rain. Timcanpy's program is enough to fully protect himself, but it isn't enough to fully protect the Hunters from the acid rain as the barrier doesn't stop the acid eating away at their armor. There is a security system mounted just outside the door to which Shinja punches in a code. The door opens and the Hunters waste no time jumping inside. As the doors close, they notice it becomes darker soon realizing their only source of light was coming from outside. Shinja panics jumping onto Zero's back. Timcanpy deactivates the program and takes out his flashlight lighting up the hallway. Shinja jumps down from Zero's back and takes the lead once more with her golem by her side.

The hallway is surprisingly quiet with nothing coming out at attack. The Hunters come upon a large door that opens up sensing them, leading them to a large room filled with computer monitors. All these monitors are security monitors, but all that's being displayed is a blue static screen with the word "DANGER". They all start to get a bad feeling as they walk up to another door. It opens up and they all run through the next hallway, coming up to the last door. The door opens, revealing another very large room with a flooded floor. In the four corners are large boulders, two of them half covered in moss. Up ahead is Rainy Turtloid withdrawn in his shell resting.

Shinja runs up to him and immeditaly tries waking him up with no luck. He stays in his shell. Timcanpy flies up to Turtloid and gently tackles his head. The large turtle Reploid wakes up, his eyes slowly opening. He sees Shinja, X, Zero, and Timcanpy. He is very groggy being unable to keep his focus for a few seconds.

Shinja says relieved, "Turtloid! I'm glad you're okay!"

"That large shell of his looks like it can protect him from the acid rain. The rest of his body hasn't been eaten away." Zero notices.

X takes a closer look saying, "He may not be damaged, but he doesn't look very well."

"Do you think we'd be able to bring him back for repairs?" Shinja asks.

"Ask them. My communicator is busted from the acid rain." X replies.

Just as Shinja is about to contact Maverick Hunter HQ, Turtloid suddenly punches X into a wall far away. He bounces off the wall falling onto the ground. Turtloid quickly grabs Shinja as he emerges from his shell standing up. She doesn't try to struggle as she notices the whites of his eyes are a violet color. Zero quickly slashes Turtloid's knee making him let go of Shinja, Zero catching her and letting her down. X recovers pushing himself back up and looks over at Turtloid. Not knowing what's going on, Turtloid turns his back to the Hunters, firing off several missiles from the green crystals in his shell. Shinja dives to one side while X and Zero take care of the missiles. She looks up at Turtloid wondering why he's attacking.

Just then he speaks in a broken static voice, "Sh-Sh-shiiiin...j-jaaaaa..."

"Turtloid?" she asks.

He replies, "System...mal-malfunction...v-virus...ov-over-overload...can't stop...help..."

"Ngh, the Nightmare Virus overroad his system! He can't help himself!" X says.

Shinja says, "Can't we disable him or something?"

Zero says, "Sorry Shinja, but the only way to save him is to take him out."

"Wha-no! No, I can't!" Shinja yells.

Turtloid speaks becoming weaker, "Y-you m-must...Sh-in-ja!"

She looks up at him unable to believe she has to kill him in order to save him from the virus. Turtloid is unable to resist any longer and finally goes into attack mode. He withdraws into his shell and starts to spin around the room like a wheel at fast speeds. The Hunters jump aside to avoid the first attack, but they become victims to the next several run around getting bounced around the room. Pretty soon Turtloid stops and jumps out of his shell. He turns his back to the Hunters and fires of another round of missiles. Shinja again dives down while X and Zero take care of them. X dashes in shooting at the giant turtle Reploid dealing damage. Zero gets in close and slashes at him before using Rekkouha. Turtloid is pushed to the wall where one of his crystals becomes smashed, unable to move or open to attack with missiles.

Turtloid then withdraws again, this time summoning Meteor Rain. The Hunters try to deflect the special attack but Turtloid simply rolls into them all. He continues this onslaught for a minute before coming back out of his shell. Unable to really fire his missiles due to a broken shell crystal, he instead stomps his feet into the ground causing it to shake. The Hunters jump onto the walls wall-kicking them to stay on. The attack ends and they jump to the ground with X and Zero using Metal Anchor and Rekkouha. Turtloid soon falls to the ground holding himself up having taken more damage. X tells Shinja to strike now before it's too late. Reluctant and wanting to believe he can be saved another way, Shinja has no choice. She closes her eyes dashing at the turtle Reploid. She uses Raijingeki to stab Turtloid in his red head crystal. Turtloid finally collapses while Shinja removes her saber.

That's when a giant green Nightmare Soul emerges from Turtloid's body. Timcanpy quickly flies up to it and absorbs it, coughing up flames instead of smoke. Shocked, the golem plummets to the ground with X catching him. Shinja falls to her knees, tears streaming down her face. Just then, Turtloid comes back to life although unable to move. He sees Shinja crying.

He says to her, "Shinja...it's okay...little one..."

"Huh? Turtloid? Y-you're still alive? Quick, let's teleport you outta here and get you fixed!" Shinja says trying to pull his arm.

"Sorry, it's too late for me." Turtloid says.

X says feeling sorry, "No it isn't. You still have some life in you. We can repair you."

"No...my body's too weak from the influence...of the Nightmare. In the smashed shell crystal are special technique chips. Take them and use them well." Turtloid says.

X and Zero look at each other. Both lower their heads feeling remorse before Zero jumps onto Turtloid's back and retrieves the chips. He jumps down next to Shinja trying to get her to let go.

When he can't get her to let go, Turtloid says, "Shinja, you need...to go...I've rigged my body to self-destruct so I can take the temple with me should this happen..."

"You WHAT? Are you insane?" Shinja flips.

Zero says, "No, he's smart. By destroying the temple with his body, he can take the Nightmare here with him. Come, we need to go."

Shinja tries to pull herself from Zero's grip but he picks her up throwing her over his shoulder. With that, X and Zero rush out of the room with Shinja screaming Turtloid's name. As soon as they exit the temple they teleport back to base. Turtloid's body begins to implode bit by bit preparing for the big bang.

Turtloid says as he is almost gone, "X...Zero...take good care of little Shinja...don't let her memories of me...fade into nothing...she is...our...future...!"

His body finally self-destructs, explosion occuring all over the temple in a domino effect. The explosion signal one big missile to launch from the temple. It flies high up into the clouds before turning around and falling faster than it launched at the area. As soon as it hits the ground, it explodes taking everything in the whole area with it.

Back at the base, Shinja has locked herself in X's room unable to handle the fact she ended Turtloid's life and is mourning his loss. Timcanpy is with Gate trying to cough up the Nightmare Souls he collected, but seems to be having an issue caughing up the giant green soul. Yammark learns of Turtloid's destruction and tells Heatnix and Wolfang who are fully repaired but resting for the moment. X is outside his door knocking on it asking Shinja to unlock it. She refuses to unlock the door for him wanting to be left alone. Zero gives it a try while attempting to force the door open with his saber. He is soon shocked by Shinja using Raijingeki and he falls to the ground slightly scorched. X helps him back up ripping the saber out of the door.

Dynamo appears wondering what all the noise is about and X tells him.

"Oh boy..." Dynamo starts, "It's best if you two leave her alone for a while."

"But we do need to get in there." Zero says.

"Trust me, just let her be. I learned from Gate that Turtloid was the first of the Investigators Shinja befriended." Dynamo reveals.

X asks, "He was her first friend out of them all?"

Dynamo explains, "Yup. She was messing around with the lab's teleporter one day and wound up at the temple. Turtloid found her cornered by a bunch of those seahorse things and he scared them off. I was told he let her stay at his temple until he contacted Gate. He would let her ride on his back and one time she fell asleep there. He treated her with a lot of care and respect and in return Shinja helped him out with certain jobs. Those two were close..."

"Aww geez..." X says before he looks at his door, "{Shinja-chan...}"

* * *

><p><strong>Trivia:<br>**1) Shinja's feelings reflect that of Ciel from _MegaMan Zero_ in the 4th installment where she starts to question if they're doing the right thing.  
>2) Double has told the others of his past with Shinja while she watches Heatnix and Wolfang get repaired; amazingly Gate didn't try attacking him this time.<br>3) Timcanpy's warningless dash out of the room could be due to him freaking out about being handled by someone else.  
>4) Um, yeah the make-out scene...the only reason it is detailed (my first detailed piece) is because Reploids cannot breed. I also wanted to emphasize on Double's strong feelings for Shinja. Keep in mind that Shinja is nothing more than a human soul placed in a Reploid body, so her felings to the kissing are a lot stronger, even to the point of "not letting" Double french kiss her.<br>5) X blushing would not be out of line since he thinks and acts more like a human. It is in his programming after all.  
>6) Zero's evil grin would be a reference to the cutscene in <em>MegaMan X4<em> when playing as him when he converses with Sigma in Final Weapon.  
>7) Zero was attempting to blackmail Double to Gate. It failed miserably.<br>8) Double doesn't beat up Zero for the camera.  
>9) When Shinja goes to delete the picture Zero took, she finds she can't bring herself to delete it as it is now the only photo she has of her and Double. The pictures she took before burned in a fire.<br>10) Timcanpy's program DOES NOT grant invincibility; it only halves the amage done by the heavy acid rain.  
>11) It is noted that the Nightmare Virus has become more aggressive in its attacks. It is possible Isoc is behind it.<br>12) The X and Zero "clones" or rather Nightmare Mirror appear in Rainy Turtloid's Stage as well as Blizzard Wolfang's. They can be hard to predict as they don't attack right away like other enemies, often pausing after appearing. Timcanpy's programming does not protect the Hunters from them.  
>13) In the game, throughout the course of the stage, the player does come closer to Inami Temple without realizing it until they challenge Turtloid or Dynamo. However, they cannot enter the temple itself as it is nothing but a background image.<br>14) Turtloid's system became overwhelmed from the virus when he was attacked in the previous chapter. It took control of him and made him attack.  
>15) Although it doesn't appear to be a true fact anywhere, the head crystal that most enemies have can serve as the main weakpoint. This is shown in one of Zero's cutscene from <em>MegaMan X4<em> when Sigma punches his crystal knocking him out. Although it knocks out Turtloid temporarily, it is enough to force the Nightmare out of him.  
>16) Turtloid's actions of self-destructing is mirrored by <em>MegaMan Zero's<em> Hidden Phantom. Both sacrifice themselves as a last resort to take care of the enemy at hand (Nightmare Virus for Turtloid, Zero for Phantom).  
>17) Dynamo reveals that Turtloid was the first Investigator Shinja befriended, giving them a strong bond at the start.<p> 


	12. Freezing Will

Character Thoughts: "{abc}"  
>Translated Speech: "<em>abc<em>"

Chapter 12:  
>Freezing Will<p>

Night has finally fallen. X and Zero were able to open the door to their room finding Shinja had cried herself to sleep. X sits on his recharge bed feeling guilt, but Zero has other thoughts on his mind. He knows that she knows what the battlefield is like, but he has a strong feeling that she never mentally prepared herself for situations like Turtloid.

Zero starts to speak his mind, "She has the heart of a warrior, even the body of a Reploid. But what she doesn't have is the full will to become a Reploid."

X looks at his friend slightly surprised asking, "What do you mean, Zero? She has what it takes to join us."

"But that's all she has. Look what just happened. Her emotions took full control."

"Zero, she's still human. Not to mention, when you were on death's door the last couple times, I got emotional."

"But you pressed on foward. You didn't think to look back once; you also didn't lock yourself in your room and cry for hours on end. Shinja doesn't know how to not look back. If she can't figure out how to press foward, her future is gonna be cut short."

"..."

"I had no choice when I lost Iris. You had no choice when I went down. Shinja needs to harden her heart if she plans on stopping Isoc. After what the others have said, chances are they're the only three left."

"Will you still say the same thing if she were to lose Gate? Or Dynamo, or even Double?"

"...Hopefully they'll stay alive long enough to see this to the end. Should they get cut down sooner, I'll push her."

"...I see. Zero, just promise me one thing. Don't be too hard on her."

"We'll see."

At Isoc's Lab, Scaravich and Sheldon have been repaired, and their minds removed. Isoc has merged their systems with the Nightmare Virus, making them his slaves. High Max is in the same situation, unable to think for himself. With Scaravich and Sheldon under his control, and Sigma becoming more and more completed, Isoc can easily launch an attack on the Reploids whenever he wishes. Infinity Mijinion is the only one to be spared given his current situation as a regenerative fluid to fuel Sigma. The Maverick Leader lies sleeping rather peacefully as Isoc repairs him more, finally getting to start rebuilding the legs. Mijinion watches in boredom wishing he had the freedom to try and rebuild Illumina, or at least create more weapons for Sigma.

Back at Maverick Hunter HQ, Gate works tirelessly alongside Alia scanning and examining the Nightmare Souls, hoping to create a program that will eradicate it. Timcanpy watches closely with nothing better to do, often getting in the way earning him a swat to the floor. Dynamo enters the lab with news on Shinja, telling them that she has fallen asleep. Gate stops analyzing the new data, causing Alia to become concerned.

"What's wrong with her crying herself to sleep? She's still new to all this." Alia asks.

"It's not that. It's knowing how she's handling it that worries me. If she's becoming upset this bad over Turtloid, just think how much worse it'll get if the others were to die." Gate answers.

Dynamo agrees leaning against the doorway crosing his arms, "Mm. I've got a feeling she acted the same way when she presumed Double to be dead. If that's the case, we need to prepare her for any similar situations. Otherwise, she won't be prepared for Isoc."

Alia says, "Well, the holographic chambers can help with that."

Gate quickly says without emotion, "Then we get her started tomorrow."

"Wha?" Dynamo and Alia question.

"Whoa, hold on Gate!" Dynamo tries to reason, "Don't you think we should take this slowly?"

"No. If she's gonna be a Reploid, then she must learn to push foward. It's the one thing I wish I went through that with her, but thanks to all the shit happening so fast, I had no time." Gate replies.

In an interogation room in the Northern Sector, Signas is questioning Double to see if he has really rebelled against Sigma. The ex-spy has been scanned revealing all ties with Sigma are lost. Things with Double eventually check out and he is released, but is restricted from several areas within the base as he is not deemed a Maverick Hunter; he will have to prove himself worthy by completing missions starting in the morning. Double heads over to X's room without hesitation wanting to check on Shinja, but he finds the door is locked. Signs of forced entry can be seen with burn marks from Zero's saber still on the door...a good indicator Zero found a way through. He goes to knock but stops himself thinking Shinja may not be in the best state of mind to talk. Instead, Double simply turns and walks away, thinking maybe he might get a chance to talk to her the next day.

While Double is lost in thought walking through the hallway to his room, Commander Yammark flies through the hall at blinding speed not noticing the ex-spy. He crashes into him, the two going into a roll and hitting the wall. Yammark gains swirls for eyes as Double recovers soon preparing an armblade. The dragonfly hears him growl, snapping out of his dizziness in time to evade the attack and start apologizing. Double recalls the blade and demands answers.

Yammark replies in a commedic fashion, "Ah, oh, th-that's right! I was looking for Commander Signas! Is he still awake?"

"Yes, he is. Why?" Double asks.

"Something up with Wolfang!"

"What?"

"It's the weirdest thing! One minute we're talking all nice and the next he tries biting my jugular!"

"...Did you piss him off?"

"No, not at all! Heatnix saw it all so he can also tell you what's going on!"

A Hunter suddenly yells through the intercom, "SOMEBODY! We need help in the Liquid Nitro Storage! Something's attacking us and taking the nitro! Huh? Oh noooo!"

All that can be heard is a scream followed by static. The alarm sounds throughout the base. Yammark looks up at Double with helpless eyes knowing for a fact it's Wolfang. He lowers his head in discouragement. Double looks back at X's door seeing it hasn't opened yet. He decides to take it upon himself to restrain Wolfang, quickly dashing to the Luquid Nitro Storage in the Southern Sector's basement. Yammark watches hopelessly gripping onto his left arm feeling hurt; he feels as if all efforts to escape Isoc were in vain. Gate and Dynamo race out of the lab heading for the Liquid Nitro Storage. While dashing through the halls they see Double rush by. Dynamo makes a quick decision entering the hall turning in the direction the ex-spy came from heading for X's room. Gate watches for only a second before following Double.

In X's room, Shinja sits up getting an ominous feeling, trying to figure out what action to take. Zero wastes no time in leaving the room knowing the situation is dire. X looks at Shinja, waiting for her to make a decision. He soon finds himself growing impatient, telling Shinja in a calm but serious tone that he's heading to the storage; he leaves the room. Shinja tries to make sense of all the thoughts racing through her head. She wonders if she should continue fighting, wanting to complete her only goal in life. But she also starts to think if she should leave the Reploids all-together if she's going to someday fight those she cares about. That's when Dynamo enters the room. He looks over at her, and she slowly looks over at him.

"Shinja, why aren't you responding?" Dynamo asks giving her a stern look.

"...Dynamo...I..." Shinja tries to say but he quickly cuts her off, "Don't say what I think you're about to say."

"Huh?"

"If you're thinking about quitting, don't. Unfortunately, fighting even your allies is part of being a Reploid."

"That's what I'm afraid of...and if this is Wolfang's doing...I-I don't know if I can fight him."

"Shinja...you can't mourn forever. This is a war, remember? You said you played the games."

"Yeah, but ever since the merging of the worlds, things changed dramatically. Sure things were still on track with the timelines between X4-X6, but...X6 never went this way. It's all 'cause of me things are going this way...it's also why Double has lasted this long."

"In that case, you're changing history in a way, right?"

"Changing history?"

Meanwhile in the Liquid Nitro Storage, Double is first to arrive. Clouds of the nitro slowly scroll across the floor making moving around difficult. Multiple Reploids are frozen, unable to move their bodies; all they can get to move are their eyes. Some Reploids lie on the ground slashed in two, across the abdomen, or across their throats, frozen from the chemical along with their blood. Several canisters have been busted open while others were stolen. Double continues on treading lightly. As he gets deeper in the basement, he comes to a door that requires an access card, however, the swiper was destroyed. The ex-spy forces the door open using his arm blades heading on through. He walks down a short hall bringing him to an elevator. There are three more basement floors, and it can bring Reploids back to the main floor. But when he goes to activate it, he sees the "up" button has been destroyed, leaving only the "down" button the only route. He starts to think if he's going to find Wolfang that he should head straight to the last floor. Double presses the button and the door opens. He walks in and gets ready for a long battle.

After the doors close, Gate is next to arrive seeing the carnage. He knows full well it is Wolfang's doing. Fearing the worst he rushes through the storage, but soon finds he's stuck to the floor. He looks around finding a canister is tipped over actually leaking onto the floor, and he had stepped into the puddle. Without any access to heat he won't be able to stop his creation. X and Zero finally arrive finding Gate stuck in place. They walk over to him, being careful of any nitro puddles, asking if he's alright. Gate replies saying he's okay, but he won't be able to move until a heat source gets introduced. He tells them to keep moving saying Wolfang needs to be stopped before he takes anymore lives. Although X is hesitant to continue, Zero gets him to follow, moving onto the elevator. Seeing that the switch has been tampered with, they decide to split up as they enter with X taking the first basement floor and Zero the second. Gate watches as a huge wave of disgrace and shame overtakes him. He starts to think letting Shinja bond with his Reploids was a bad idea.

The elevator stops at the first basement floor. X steps off and watches the doors close, Zero waving bye. With that X presses foward seeing that this floor hasn't been frozen over. Chances are Wolfang isn't here, until he hears growling. Preparing his buster he walks on, soon coming under attack by a pack of several Wolfoids. X refuses to fire at first seeing as how they're under control by something else. Instead he grabs a metal pipe and whacks them on their necks, knocking them out with one hit. Thinking he might get attacked by more Wolfoids that belong the the Maverick Hunters, he keeps the metal pipe on hand. He continues on through the floor not finding much of anything till he comes across a closed door. When he goes to open it, he finds it's locked, so he fires a Charge Shot at it, successfully burning a hole through it. X makes his way in seeing the room is filled with all kinds of files ranging from the first few Maverick attacks to present cases. He looks around seeing a piece of paper stuck to the wall with an icicle spear. He rips it off the spear and as he reads it, becomes shocked.

Zero explores the second basement floor finding the floors to be icy. He has already slipped and fallen a total of three times, one of those times smacking into a wall. He now uses his saber to keep steady as he lightly walks through the floor. All too soon a pack of Wolfoids attacks him; although he'd love to defend, he knows they belong to the Hunters. Instead he dashes across the ice building up enough speed to outrun the Wolfoids, their claws giving them the grip they need. A door up ahead starts to close. Zero keeps the speed up quickly sliding under the door, causing the Wolfoids to crash into it as he uses Rakukojin to come to a stop. He stands up using his saber, seeing the room is dark. Then a light turns on revealing an Eyezard, much to Zero's surprise.

"Wait a sec," he says, "Didn't X and I take you out months ago?"

The Eyzard gathers a shell of ice, tranaforming into a clawed-hand and flips him off.

"...Well...that explains a lot."

Eyezard then transforms into a face similar to the Cacodemon from the Doom series games, saying with a robotic voice, "We Eyezards can exist as long as the place we live is cold. However, I was discovered by one of you Hunters two months ago, disabled. Thinking I'd never function, I was placed here. Bad deision much?"

"Apparently. Either way, you're a Maverick. You know what happens next, right?"

"Oh sure. Battle. But, I'm not the Eyezard you met months ago. I'm a different model. What you saw could only become a spike ball and a claw...as you can see, I can become much more, even having enough intelligence to speak. Prepare yourself Hunter!"

The Eyezard transforms into a triceratops, pawing at the ground ready to charge. Zero knows he won't be able to defeat it quickly without having any fire attacks, and the icy floor will make the battle more difficult. Soon Eyezard charges with a roar. Zero tries to dash out of the way but finds he can't gain the speed he needs, so he jumps up sticking his saber in the ceiling, hanging onto it. Eyezard stops in its tracks before hitting the wall and looks up. It quickly transforms into a condor, flying up at the blonde-haired Hunter, quickly scratching and pecking at him. Zero loses his grip and falls, hitting the floor hard. Eyezard transforms back into a trike, easily body slamming Zero, causing him to cough up blood.

On the third floor, Double has located Wolfang as he sits on an icy throne, petting a Wolfoid. Double glares while Wolfang looks at him like he's nothing. The wolf soon stands ordering the Wolfoid out of the room. It rushes out, shutting and locking the door behind it. He descends from the throne, walking up to Double. The ex-spy pulls out an arm blade as a warning, but the wolf only laughs.

"Oh Double," Wolfang starts, "those flimsy out-dated blades aren't going to harm me in the least."

Double quickly demands, "Why have you gone Maverick? Isn't Shinja important to you?"

"Hm? You're asking me why I've gone Maverick? You fool, the answer's all around you. The Nightmare Virus dwells within my system. I may not have successfully gotten away from Isoc, but at least I still have my mind."

"Which is corrupted!"

"As for Shinja...she used to be important to me."

"Used to be?"

"What are you, a parrot? That child is so naive. She doesn't know which end is up anymore."

"Take that back, Wolfang! You're still important to her!"

"Oh give it a rest! I don't care if she learned to fight from playing video games or not, I'm the one who taught her the importance of battles. She could never get it straight."

"You'll regret that."

"Oh really? Well, you're quiet a cocky Reploid. Are you cocky enough to attack me in my element?"

"Tch, I've been cocky since I was created! You'll be the third one to see that, but you won't be able to live to tell about it."

"Come at me then."

On the first basement floor, X rushes back to the elevator immediatly presses the down button. However, it malfunctions and doesn't return to the floor. Without too many options, X uses another Charge Shot to get through the doors. He jumps through landing on top of the elevator quickly opening the escape hatch then drops right through it. Suddenly the bottom gives way and he falls to the bottom, landing on his back. After a couple minutes he recovers, opening an eye and looking back at the elevator sees signs that someone else has used it; several slash marks left behind by a saber shows signs of forced entry and impatience. The bottom part had been previously weakened by lack of maintenance. He sits up looking at the slash marks. They appear to form an image of a snake. That's when X remembers Shinja's name means "sacred snake"; she had been through here.

Meanwhile on the second floor, Zero isn't fairing well against the well-upgraded Eyezard. His saber remains stuck in the ceiling and his buster had become destroyed when Eyezard transformed into a lion and chewed it. It is now in the form of a babboon and wailing on Zero like he was dinner. Zero is unable to fight back trying to block the barrage of fists and claws, his armor becoming dented and brittle. He looks around trying to see if there is anything he can use, and finds a spray can. He quickly kicks Eyezard and grabs the can, pointing it at the Mechaniloid with his buster in front. Eyezard laughs thinking it can't be damaged since Zero's buster is damaged, however, as Zero starts spraying, he manages to get his buster to send out a spark, igniting the spray turning the can into a flamethrower. The flames envelope Eyezard as it transforms madly until it is fully exposed. Zero continues to spray Eyezard until it finally explodes, resulting in victory. He lies back taking a deep breath tossing the spray can aside.

He starts to grin as he chuckles looking up at his saber. He calms down soon looking at his buster, unable to switch to his hand. That's when he hears X calling his name. The door opens with X sliding through using his buster to stop in place. X looks over at Zero stunned to see his friend in bad condition.

Zero smiles saying, "Hey X."

"What the hell? How'd you...?" X tries to ask becoming speechless.

"Someone brought home a not-so-defective Eyezard. The damn thing was upgraded pretty good; for once, I couldn't keep up."

"...That's 'cause we don't have any fire attacks. But how'd you beat it?"

"I lit a can on fire."

"You're sick."

"Damn straight."

"By the way, I think we've got a problem..."

"Yeah, it's Wolfang."

"No, we've got another one..."

"Huh?"

On the third floor, Double is in a heated battle with Wolfang. The two find they're evenly matched; they continue to counter each other's moves unable to land any hits. The both of them clash before jumping back. Wolfang looks over at his opponent with an evil grin amazed to be fighting someone on an equal level, but Double simply glares at him wanting to end the fight. The two lunge at each other again, Double going for a stab and Wolfang going for a slash. However, this time Wolfang dodges the attack and swipes at Double's abdomen, making the first hit. Double jumps back seeing the plasma leak out of his body; he knows he's in trouble as the plasma tries to immediatly regenerate itself. What he doesn't realize is that he made a mistake by becoming distracted, looking back too late finding Wolfang already biting down on his neck. As Wolfang tries to push him down to the ground, Double tries to activate his defense by trying to get a mini flying robot to split apart from him, but he soon finds that part of him is dysfunctional. Wolfang soon succeeds in bring Double to the ground now attempting to rip his throat apart. The ex-spy tries his best to produce an energy disk, but the wolf's vicious instinct is too much.

That is until a charged plasma shot is fired at Wolfang, causing him to jump back with a yelp. Double tilts his head back trying to get a look at who saved him and is shocked to find it's Shinja with a strong look on her face, still aiming the buster. Dynamo is behind her, hands on his hips as he watches with a serious look. Shinja switches to her hand and draws out her saber, pointing it at her former friend. Wolfang recovers from the attack and looks to find Shinja. At first he's surprised, but it's all a facade; he goes into an immediate maniacle laughter. Shinja wastes no time in charging at him in a full dash using Raijingeki. She astonishingly hits her mark, stabbing Wolfang through his stomach while sending various amounts of voltage through his body. Bewildered by the sudden attack, Wolfang looks down as Shinja keeps looking foward. She stops her technique before ripping he saber out from her former friend, pushing him onto his back.

Shinja stands putting her saber away and clenching her fists. That's when several Nightmare Viruses leave Wolfang's body only to be quickly destroyed by Dynamo's blade. Double manages to push himself to sit up watching in awe. He notices a tear stream down her face, her body started to tremble. The Wolf Reploid looks up at Shinja now freed from the Nightmare and back to normal, too late. Banging can be heard coming from the elevator shaft with X being heard hitting the ground below again. Zero is with him, teasing his friend on his landing skills. The two rush through the floor quickly coming upon the scene in front of them.

Wolfang speaks, his voice weakening as blood quickly leaves his body, "...Shinja...keh, you've...you set me free, didn't you?"

Shinja tries to speak, her voice cracking, "I don't get it. How could you have been so easily tainted?"

"It happens, Shinja...but at least...I'm glad to have been put down by your blade..." Wolfang proudly says.

"Wait, you're glad that she ended you?" Double asks confused.

Wolfang replies, "Yes. I became loyal to her rather quickly...if I were to be killed again, I wanted it to be by her blade...no one else's..."

Zero asks, "But why her? I can tell you two were close friends, but..."

"Because if she could end my life if I were to turn Maverick by some mean, then to me that means she has learned to become a true warrior...Augh!" Wolfang replies before becoming overwhelmed by pain.

Against her better judgement, Shinja walks over to him, drops to her knees, then picks him up holding him close trying her hardest not to cry. This reminds X of his early days as a Hunter, when a clown/jester-like Maverick killed a girl's dog. After he was through with the Maverick, he approached the girl who was crying over her dog, and he showed his sympathy by crying with her. However, this scene is different. Wolfang can sense how upset Shinja really is and tries to place his habd on her shoulder, but he's far too weak. X sneaks his way over and helps Wolfang place his hand on her shoulder. He steps back not wanting Shinja to sense him.

Shinja says with her voice cracking, "We can fix you! I'm not gonna let you die like this!"

Wolfang says nearing his last breath, "Sorry Shinja, but this time I can't be revived so easily...my system's done...don't let this be a reapeat of Turtloid..."

"But you've only got a stab wound!" Shinja starts to argue.

"I've got a lot more damage than you think...Shinja...ngh...I don't have much time left...the technique chips are located in my tail...take them..." Wolfang says getting weaker.

Shinja begs finally unable to keep from crying, "Don't go, Wolfang! Not yet!"

Wolfang says now on his dying breath, "It's okay...when Reploids die, our data is sent to a special kind of heaven...I'll be watching you from above...my spirit will...live on...within you..."

His hand slips off her shoulder and hits the ground. The ice begins to melt indicating Wolfang has passed. The technique chips pop out of his tail landing on the floor. Shinja places him back down on the ground, unable to do any more. She gets up and gathers the chips. X walks over clearing his throat to gain her attention. She turns to face him and he hands over the note saying it was meant for her eyes. It reads:

_Shinja,  
>While I still have my own consciousness left, I wanted to tell you how proud I am of you. You've come so far in the short time we've known each other. I've taught you very well how to fight and how to think like a warrior. I can still recall the first time I started training you, how you came at me like a wild animal. Video games weren't enough then, but now you know how to defend yourself and others. Although this may seem like the end, it's really only the beginning. Even if others don't view you as an actual Reploid, you'll always be one in my eyes. I've always stopped myself from saying this, but now it seems more appropriate: I've always loved and cared about you, like we were pack-mates. Even if I am no longer in this world, I'll still watch over and protect you from the next world.<br>Please, don't be too upset. You've gained more allies than you think that are there to support you. I'm sure X will teach you many things about being a Reploid as well as treating you like you're his sister. I know Zero will train you well, molding you into the perfect Reploid. Even Dynamo, Gate, and Double will be there for you. Live as long as you like, Shinja. Your new life has just begun._

_Your Friend and Mentor,  
>Blizzard Wolfang<em>

"Wolfang...I won't forget you." Shinja says haing read the note.

"He was a great friend, wasn't he?" X asks placing an arm around her as Dynamo helps up Double.

"X, you do recall what I said before, do-" Zero goes to say before Shinja cuts him off, "I heard what you said, Zero. I was awake after you forced the door open; I chose not to respond."

Dynamo taunts, "You're in for it now, ain't you, Zero?"

Double demands, "What did you say about my girl, you prick?"

"He said that-" Shinja tries to respond just as X cuts her off, "Um, we'll tell you after. How about I make you some warm milk, Shinja?"

"{Ah crap, this is gonna be a long night.}" Zero thinks grabing his damaged arm.

Night quickly turns to morning as everyone tries to get rest. Gate had collected Wolfang's body, and at Shinja's request has prepared him for a sea burial. With three Nightmare Investigators down, Shinja now knows Hyoretsuzen, but has yet to master Rakohouha, the Giga Attack. She has left with Gate and two Maverick Hunters to burry Blizzard Wolfang in the Arctic Sea. Double is fully repaired but Zero is down a buster, leaving one arm armorless. X and Dynamo are busy training in the holographic chambers. Timcanpy is with Signas having been told to stay behind since his wings will easily freeze should he fall into the water.

Within a couple hours, Shinja, Gate, and the two Hunters return. While the Hunters report to Signas, Shinja heads for the rooftop wanting to isolate herself in order tp think. Gate decides to head for the lab and continue working on a way to delete the Nightmare Virus.

* * *

><p><strong>Trivia:<strong>  
>1) Zero is known to have a cold and emotionless attitude, his statement about Shinja is true. He is unaware that she heard him though.<br>2) Gate is shown to have the same thoughts as Zero, despite the fact that he loves her.  
>3) Double is gaining more of a role like Axl; he has yet to be made a Hunter and can be quite rash at times.<br>4) Dynamo says that Shinja is "changing history". In the games, there is usually a big time skip. Between X4-X6, however, it goes from a few months (X4-X5) to three weeks (X6; depending on how the fan wants to view it. I've always known it as 3 weeks and not 3 years, the actual timeskip). But, in X6, Gate goes insane from Zero's viral DNA; he does not here as Shinja was the one to touch the DNA, and while still human, was not affected. Isoc and High Max still side with each other, and Dynamo is not after the Nightmare Souls.  
>5) X finds a note left behind by Wolfang while he was still in a stable state of mind before the Nightmare Viruses took over.<br>6) In X4, there is only one Eyezard with limited transformations, and it never makes another appearance. Since X6 doesn't have very many sub-bosses (if any), a plot device was needed for Zero. This Eyezard is also upgraded.  
>7) Zero turns a spray can into a flamethrower; since the Hunters haven't fought and defeated Heatnix, he did not have the elemental advantage to beat the Eyezard, thus having to resort to another method.<br>8) Since Double is mostly made up of a gelatinous liquid substance, he won't be bleeding blood; instead it will be plasma similar to Infinity Mijinion, only Double won't have an infinite supply.  
>9) For those that may not know, wolves do go for the jugular if the prey is small enough.<br>10) Shinja makes a deadly strike without hesitation for the first time.  
>11) Shinja tries not to cry like she did with Turtloid; although she succeeds, she still sheds tears.<br>12) If anyone has read the manga, in the very first chapter, a clown/jester-looking Maverick kills a girl's dog, and X does cry with her. Although he doesn't do it here, he still says a line similar to what he said in the manga: for Shinja it's, "He was a great friend, wasn't he?"; for the girl it's, "He was a great dog, wasn't he!".  
>13) What "special place" Wolfang is talking about is Cyberspace. In MegaMan Zero3, Phantom reveals that any Reploid that dies is sent to Cyberspace.<br>14) Shinja reveals she heard what Zero said, which is possibly one reason why she tries to be stronger.  
>15) Wolfang is burried in the Arctic Sea, only this time it's a sea burial. His first death he was tossed into the cold sea.<p> 


End file.
